City approves an ORV link through Lindsay
Kawartha Lakes council, by a vote of 7-2, decided at their June 1 committee of the whole meeting to recommend only one route for ORVs to travel through Lindsay. Councillor Pat Dunn called the route the best choice “because it was the shortest, safest route with the fewest number of homes impacted.”
The route selected will impact the following streets:
The Victoria Rail Trail (VRT) trailhead at Logie Street to King Street, King Street to Lindsay Street, Lindsay Street to Wellington Street crossing the Wellington Street Bridge, Wellington Street to Victoria Avenue, Victoria Avenue to Elgin Street, Elgin Street to Angeline Street, Angeline Street to Thunderbridge Road, Thunderbridge Road to the VRT trailhead.
“We did a lot of study and received a lot of feedback on this issue,” Dunn said. “It is hard to say what the majority wants. Positions are very polarized. Therefore this needs to be a decision made by council.”
Councillor Doug Elmslie and Mayor Andy Letham spoke very strongly about approving only one of the three route options proposed by the ORV Task Force for the duration of the pilot program. Elmslie agreed with Dunn that the Logie Street option was the one that made sense to him also.
Letham argued strongly for another option that would utilize Hwy 36 and have ORVs skirt a large piece of Lindsay, particularly in the Logie Street area. Letham believed that option was best but the rest of council did not see it that way.
Deputy-mayor Pat O’Reilly thanked the task force for their work but wanted to point out that everything he heard suggested ORVs in Lindsay were not wanted by residents there.
“I have talked to a lot of people in Lindsay. The majority of people in town are opposed to having ORVs on city streets. We do not need them on our streets in Lindsay. I will not support any of the three proposed routes or any proposal that will put ORVs on city streets.”
Once the one route was recommended by council, Letham looked directly at the camera speaking to Kawartha Lakes residents as to what had been recommended by council.
“We have selected one route that will take ORVs directly through Lindsay. Only ATVs will be allowed to use it and no other city streets will be used for access to this linkage.”
Council was about begin discussion of the ORV linkage through Bobcaygeon when council’s Zoom link failed. The Advocate will report on the Bobcaygeon decision as that information becomes available.More to come.
