City Brass, Mayor And Council AWOL In River Rd. Protest

By Ben Meisner

While the City Council, Mayor included ,stayed away from the protest for the River Road Berm on Saturday, they might do well to remember two things

First, those people standing at the intersection were not a bunch of malcontents.  There were business owners of companies that employee hundreds of people, the United Steel workers who represent a large portion of the working population, and for good measure, a lot of just ordinary folks who tuned out to offer their support.

Secondly, we do know with absolute certainty that the Province did not tell the City to keep the berm in place contrary to what the city hall brass were trying to make us believe. Pat Bell put that myth to bed rather soundly lately and there was a lot of talk about that as the people stood at the intersection of 5^th and Carney.

So where does that leave the City? 

Well the Mayor's Office, the Office of the City Manager and finally and most importantly ,those who are seeking re election in the next six months  make the call.  If they haven’t been keeping up with what has been going on along River Rd, they don’t deserve to have a seat at the city table. If they haven’t been asking questions about what is going on it is their respective jobs to do just that, and so far they have dropped the ball.

The Province has made it quite clear; they will get the Gabion dikes removed just as soon as the frost is out of the ground. They quite clearly know what they are doing and they have made it painfully clear that they did not, nor did anyone in their organization, tell the City to keep River Rd as a berm for the spring flood.

We do know that a study being conducted by the city into flooding along the river could take upwards of 14 months and that means the results will roll in after the next election, about 6 months too late for a host of the Councilors who had adopted a rather strange attitude of late that they don’t need to represent the people of the city.

Colin Kinsley, I believe, has been watching the tide to see if the water doesn’t get too high, that he may be able to take another run at the Mayor’s job. His job shadow, Don Zurowski, at this point in the game would need huge support to get him anywhere near the office that he so desperately hopes to capture.

They, along with the rest of Council, may find that the memory of the voting public can indeed extend past six months.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s Opinion

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