Truck bylaw riles residents

By Michael Gorman

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

One month after the town of Yarmouth enacted a truck route bylaw residents are already upset.

At last week's regular council meeting Wendy Dennis, a resident of Herbert Street, presented council with a petition signed by residents of Herbert Street and several other surrounding streets complaining of increased truck traffic in their neighbourhood since the bylaw was passed and asked that Herbert Street be removed from the town's truck route.

Dennis estimated traffic from large trucks has increased 10 fold in the last month. She voiced concerns about the safety implications on the neighbourhood as well as the noise and other problems it causes for residents in the area.

Dennis's concerns were championed by councillors Wally Strickland and Byron Boudreau. Boudreau, who first brought the idea for a truck route to council in response to concerns from downtown businesses about congestion caused by trucks in the downtown that didn't need to be there, said he made a mistake when approving a truck bylaw that included Herbert Street as part of the permitted route.

But not all of council share the sentiments of Strickland and Boudreau.

Councillor Clifford Hood pointed out that prior to the bylaw coming into effect, trucks could go anywhere in town they wanted. He said the bylaw should be given time to settle in before talk already begins about changing it.

"It think it's unwise to review a bylaw we just passed a month ago," said Hood. "We have achieved, for a relatively modest cost, the improvements on Starrs Road that we wanted to get."

Although the idea for the truck bylaw originated with the thought of diverting truck traffic from the downtown that didn't need to be there, it was further developed to keep trucks that needed to get to the waterfront from having to go through the centre of town and also cut down on the congestion of Starrs Road.

But debate about the truck route did not end with Herbert Street. Boudreau and Strickland also raised concerns about Argyle Street being included on the truck route, citing the number of children and seniors who live in the area while putting aside the fact that Argyle Street is the most direct point from the highways to the waterfront while directing traffic away from the downtown and Starrs Road. Trucks, after all, have to negotiate town somehow and, as one councillor pointed out, children and seniors live throughout the town.

Deputy Mayor Martin Pink said that while some residents in the area may long for the way things were before the Brooklyn Street extension, they must be prepared to change with the times. Part of that, he said, involved the town's traffic patterns. If the bylaw proves to be a problem in time, he said, it could always be changed.

"The town has to do what the town has to do to move the flow of traffic in light of our total master plan," said Pink.