It all started in 2020, when Michel Morel regained his post as mayor, which he had held between 1989 and 2020. The opportunity for this retired methods technician, formerly of Lip, to implement a project born there about ten years: securing a section of road in his municipality by installing heating cables. Located on the borders of the Doubs, 2.5 kilometers from the Swiss border, Jougne spreads over 3,000 hectares with its seven hamlets and a significant difference in height between the lowest point of the town, at 800 meters, and the summit of the Mont d’Or, which culminates at 1,463 meters.
In the village, bordered by the N57, the road taken every day by cross-border workers to get to Switzerland, traffic is not always easy as the slopes are steep, especially in winter. However, the demographic vitality of Jougne – the population has tripled in half a century, reaching 2,100 inhabitants, the vast majority of whom work in Switzerland – is reflected in a swarming of housing estates on the outskirts of the village: more than 200 dwellings are in the process of being construction, calculates the town hall.
A controversy over “excessive urbanization”
This is the case of the district served by rue de la Fougère, where new pavilions are springing up every year. “Here, you have to know how to maneuver, because whoever gives a kick goes on a sled”, comments Michel Morel. Last fall, the town hall called on the Colas company to carry out the work on the most exposed part of the road, around thirty meters.
Despite a modest investment and limited electricity consumption – the road heats up according to the temperatures on the ground and in the air – the project has provoked a lively controversy, largely exceeding the commune of Jougne. An ecological activist site hastened to denounce “excessive urbanization” and “its energy-consuming needs”. “We didn’t think it would cause so much talk,” reports Denis Bertin-Guyon, the deputy mayor for the works, comforted by the letters of support sent by residents. In the meantime, the heating cables were hardly used during the Christmas holidays: on New Year’s Day, the thermometer showed 17° C in Jougne, a record… Since then, the temperatures have been negative, without transforming the bitumen at the ice rink…