‘Another poor decision’

Dear Editor:

RE: Erin council green-lights Hillsburgh gravel pit remediation, Jan. 29.

In this article Erin Mayor Michael Dehn has come out in support of filling a spent pit in Hillsburgh despite decades of citizen opposition to these activities in our town.

It’s a betrayal of our trust that our council would allow for such a carbon-heavy, road-destroying disruptive activity that will probably do more damage to the roads than that paltry $250,000 deposit will ever cover.

We have had the unfortunate experience of living on a road below a site that was accepting fill – three trucks in and three trucks out, all day long and sometimes on the weekend, when there’s no one available to police these activities

I can say firsthand that it’s a horrendous experience and absolutely disruptive of one’s peaceful enjoyment of one’s property. The noise, dust and diesel fumes are outrageous.

We know a load of fill is worth hundreds of dollars but a contaminated load is worth thousands. I’d like to know what the sophisticated methods are that can track a dirty load buried, spread and quickly covered – and that remediate such activity.

And the poor people of Hillsburgh will have to put up with this for two decades. That’s right, not the two-year max that residents fought for in a bylaw, but 15 to 20 years.

We could lower development charges, stimulating sales in the stalled subdivision and avoiding the Ontario land tribunal case coming up; we could reduce staffing and trim costs generally in what I would consider is excessive staffing for a town of 12,000. 

But no, our mayor betrays us again, as he did with the attempt to remove our shamrock from thetown’s logo.

It’s another poor decision by this council that doesn’t reflect or respect the citizens of this town

Tom Carroll,
Erin