COMMUNITY

Walton and Murphy maintain they acted promptly to concerns brought directly to them, not through social media “It’s important to note that we can only address concerns that are brought to our attention directly. Many concerns are now being raised through social media rather than directly with the County, which makes it challenging to address them in a timely manner.”

Hazell maintains there was a substantial gap in communication leaving himself and many neighbours feeling ignored and unheard He’s become progressively irritated with the lack of representation from councillors and any last-minute efforts from Councillors John Bell and John Peirce to acknowledge the outcry from frustrated is too little too late, he said.

“This past year needs to be an eyeopener for the people in this community We need to realize the complete lack of representation and communication from our own councillors in this matter,” said Hazell.

For their part, Peirce and Bell issued a joint statement on Facebook, stating “there is often a period of upset and disruption, that combined with a limited construction season leads to frustration and we understand that. With any construction it is disruptive and we can’t please all homeowners but once completed in the end more often than not turns out to be a benefit to the neighbourhood Neither of us councillors have received many complaints at all, in fact just the opposite. There has been much praise and thanks for the work done for the improvement to our aging urban infrastructure ” The post went on to say both Peirce and Bell voted against the sidewalk installation, a pain point for several residents in the neighbourhood.

After it’s all said and done, Hazell couldn’t help but feel that all their complaints over the last 14 months were not heard.

“It’s appalling that Council would award another contract to this company (BEECH Infrastructure Group Ltd) who have basically turned a 30-week project into what is now moving into double that amount of time.”

Hazell is referring to a recent council meeting where council endorsed a staff recommendation to hire BEECH Infrastructure Group Ltd to start the West River Street water, stormwater and roads project, set to begin in a few weeks

BEECH submitted the lowest bid for both the Race Street and West River Street tenders. All four Paris Councillors and the Mayor did not support the recommendation with Peirce and Bell leading the charge stating residents are not happy with the work on Race Street so they could not support the hiring of this contractor on another vital job in town.

In the end, with a vote of 6-5, council awarded the West River Street contract to BEECH. Before the official vote, a debate did spark some questions as to whether council should re-examine the county’s procurement process outlined in Purchasing Policy By-law 87-22. Some councillors acknowledged the lowest bid isn’t always the best route and that they should consider additional factors like contractor performance on past jobs and overall community satisfaction with the contractor

In the case of satisfaction on Hillside/Race Street, it depends on who you ask. County staff and some councillors say the near finished project looks great and is a considerable enhancement for the neighbourhood. For those who lived through the 14-month long project, it wasn’t as smooth, well planned or executed as it was laid out to them when the plans were presented at a public meeting last year The entire ordeal has left residents like Hazell strongly believing that change is necessary.