Plans to pave part of the Waterford Heritage Trail are moving forward.
Norfolk County councilors on Thursday approved an exemption to the county’s purchasing policy to allow work to get underway in the fall.
The exemption modifies the policy to allow staff to hire a company for the trail asphalt project by way of a request for quotation. It also delegates authority to Al Meneses, the county’s CAO to award the project to a company.
The policy exemption was required to help get the project started and completed before the end of the year. It was the only issue up for debate at Tuesday’s council meeting and the staff recommendation passed without much discussion by councilors.
Plans call for the trail to be paved by Oct. 31 and is expected to take four days to complete.
“Before the paving may occur, the County will enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Waterford Heritage Trail Association to outline responsibilities for design specifications, tendering, project oversight and risk mitigation during construction,” Jarah Stefek, county communications supervisor, said in an email following the meeting.
Spearheaded by the trail association, the project was brought to Norfolk County Council in March 2022 with a request for $100,000 in financial support. The project’s estimated cost is $600,000.
However, the association has since secured federal funding for the project and rescinded its request for financial support from the county.
Plans call for 11 kilometers of the 25-kilometre trail beginning from Waterford North to Brant County to be paved.
However, as a condition of support, the federal funding must be used by March 2023. Given that the project couldn’t likely be done over the winter, plans call for work to begin in the fall and completed before the end of 2022.
Back in July, concerns about accessibility were raised with some objecting to asphalt, others suggesting limestone be used instead.
Some members of the public, opposed to paving the trail, said they may file a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.
At issue was a question about consultation under the Ontario Accessibility Act.
The controversy prompted some questions of county staff by Coun. Kim Huffman, who represents Ward 7 – Waterford.
Specifically, Huffman wanted to know the results of a survey about the project on the county’s EngageNorfolk website.
Sam McFarlane, the county’s manager for accessibility and special projects, told councilors the survey generated 915 responses, many of which were duplicates due to a technical error.
The final results of the survey found that 403 of those or 48 per cent supported paved asphalt. A further 353 or 42 per cent supported crushed limestone while 79 or 10 per cent had no preference.
Huffman followed up with another question.
“For transparency purposes, because I know this has been a long process for everyone and I know there has been a lot of misinformation and I want to clarify a few things,” Huffman said.
She asked if the county had broken any rules or laws through the process.
“Based on my professional opinion I feel comfortable in saying we didn’t break any laws as it relates to the ODA – Ontario Disabilities Act,” McFarlane said.
Huffman had one more clarification question.
“The funding is a grant that was secured through the Waterford Heritage Trail Association with the assistance of Venture Norfolk for the full amount to cover the paving and no other surface can be used because it would not fall under the scope of the funding,” Huffman said. “Is that correct?
McFarlane said “yes, that is correct.”
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