Pontiac council report - paving, incinerator, bicycle path
Mo Laidlaw
The council meeting on October 15, 2008 was attended by nearly 20 taxpayers, three councillors - Middlemiss, Coyle and Dagenais, and Mayor Eddie McCann. Because there were insufficient council members for quorum, Mayor McCann fielded questions from the floor while waiting to see if another councillor arrived within the hour.
Guy Bilodeau asked whether the paving contractor had been paid, since there seem to be defects. McCann explained that $500,000 has been held back. The mayor, director-general and Marc Drouin, the Fondex engineer in charge of the project, will meet Carrière LaPêche (Construction Edelweiss), the paving contractor, to find out what they propose to complete the job satisfactorily. Pontiac has asked a third party, the Paterson Group, experts in paving not involved with the municipality or the contractor, to determine if or when the job is acceptable. If no agreement is reached legal action will be taken, and it will be up to a judge to decide if the municipality must pay interest on the outstanding amount
Jean-Claude Carisse asked about progress on an incinerator for garbage - a joint project of Shawville, Clarendon and Pontiac. Mayor McCann has to meet the warden of MRC Pontiac. No decisions can be made until the province rules on whether a new landfill site will be permitted at Danford Lake.
M. Carisse also asked about reports in the French language daily paper about funding from the ministry of Transport for the bicycle path in Pontiac, as part of the Route verte (provincial network of bike paths). Mayor McCann replied that it’s possible the shoulders of highway 148 could be paved to the standard for the Route Verte, between Aylmer and Quyon (not the proposed route on municipal roads). Councillor Amyotte, and director-general Sylvain Bertrand have more information on this, but were both absent.
The October regular meeting will be rescheduled.