30 May 2003

New government means delay for school gymnasium

Mo Laidlaw

School commissioner Hélène Bélisle has been in touch with new MNA Charlotte l’Ecuyer over provincial funding for the new gymnasium at Luskville’s Notre-Dame-de-la-Joie school. It seems that like many other projects with apparently agreed funding by the former government, there will be delays and reevaluations. The school gym project will also be partially funded by the Portages de l’Outaouais school commission, and the municipality of Pontiac, which has set aside $300,000 towards the community project.

Financing delay for bicycle trail study
According to Marc Fortin of the CLD des Collines, a consulting firm has been selected to carry out the study of bicycle trails within the municipality of Pontiac, to connect the PPJ and trails in Aylmer and Hull. A contract will be drawn up soon, when financing is finalized, and the committee will hold a meeting with the municipality on June 26. The study will start in September after people have returned from their summer holidays, and will hold three public consultations as part of its mandate.

The Route verte in Outaouais
Meanwhile, on May 27, a new section of twenty kilometres of the Route verte was inaugurated in the Outaouais, connecting Papineauville and the western limit of the Laurentides region. This bicycle trail is located on paved shoulders of highway 148, as it threads through the picturesque countryside along the Ottawa River.
The Route verte is 75% complete, and uses abandoned rail-lines, country roads and paved shoulders of highways. By 2005 there will be 4200 kilometres of bicycle routes crossing Quebec from east to west.
In Outaouais certain parts still have to be completed in urban Gatineau, as well as paving the shoulders of highway 148 between Papineauville and Masson-Angers and providing special road signs.