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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2006-09-14, Page 23The Brubachers of Ethel Restaurant & Bakery Real Home Cooking Try our Cinnamon Buns Mon. - Fri. 7-6:30; Sat. 8-6:30, Sunday Closed 887-8659 GRIDIRON GANG RAKCO ON A TRUK .TORY 11•1041.....k.o.cam ica.-7 Lien•a aelear *44 A fie-At cuo,,t,/,,,putqvie Fri & Sat 6:45 & 9:15 Sun - Wed. 8:00 Language May Offend Livery Filmfest Thursday 21st 7:00 Only witit,&sgzer ricwar www.movielinks.ca long distance?1-800 -265 -3438 Fri & Sat 6:45 & 9:15 Sun - Thur 8:00 $5.25 Is Violence Language 111Ay OtUnd poret. Nut Reaanunanded DIGITAL tbaYoun Children :1111111:. - PARK THEATRE GODERICH 524-781 Sept. 15 21 •••• The family of Janet Munking would like to invite everyone to a Conte and co- Open, Nato,e in honour of her 7011 kaliciati on Wednesday, Sept. 20th from 2-8 pm at 55 Rattenbury St , Clinton .`Bea eag The BLYm The place to he. Golf Tournament The 3rd annual Blyth Inn Golf Tournament October 7 at Woodlands Links Course FREE golf towel with every golfer's entry at the Blyth Inn before September 30 18 holes of 2 person best ball format golf and Prime Rib dinner $55 Over $15,000 in prizes up for grabs MYTH INN 519-523-9381 IT'S TIME TO DANCE! Join the Huron County Cloggers And dance away the cold weather blues! REGISTRATION Tuesday, September 26th, 2006 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Main Hall @ SDCC All ages welcome! For more information contact Sherr McCall @ 519-527-1307 TWINS ARE '40' Darryl & David Hastings September 17th Happy Birthday Love your family & friends THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2006. PAGE 23. Saving Ball's Bridge a major challenge By Keith Roulson Citizen publisher While interest was expressed by Huron County warden Rob Morley at the September meeting of Huron County council, about the need to preserve the heritage of -Ball's Bridge, the challenges in achieving that goal became evident during a roads department presentation. In his remarks Morley noted that the 1885 bridge is in the county's bridge inventory, even though it is not on a county road, because of the old provisions that made a bridge on the boundary between two townships a county responsibility. It would be hard to find money in the roads budget to make the necessary repairs, he said. "It's also part of our history and our heritage," he said, and it is important 'enough on this basis to be worth finding a way to save it. The problem is that to bring it up to county road standards might mean the heritage aspects of the structure were lost, he said. This conundrum was illustrated by a slide-show presentation by county engineer Don Pletch and Dave Laurie of the roads department. Pletch pointed out that when the bridge was build in 1885 it was 20 years before The invention of the automobile. The bridge was probably designed for a load limit of five tons, he said. In recent years the bridge has been posted for a load limit of two tons, Pletch said, but he knew of a snowmobile club that was taking its heavy grooming equipment over the bridge. One farmer was taking loads of up to 18 tons over the bridge. When the Friends of Ball's Bridge assembled on the bridge for a photo, their combined weight probably exceeded the' two-ton load limit, he Pletch pointed to liability issues the county would face if some overloaded vehicle were to crash through the bridge. Throughout their presentation he and Laurie pointed to other hazardous conditions that would have left the county vulnerable to law suits if the bridge had not been closed to traffic. The guide-rails on the approaches to the bridge are cables that would not hold a car if they hit it, said Laurie and the drop off the road is so deep a vehicle going through the cable would be in serious danger. The handrail along the bridge is also wobbly to the point of being dangerous even for pedestrians. The photos also detailed the structural deficiencies with the bridge. The bridge is a "steel pin" bridge but some of the bolts are so rusted the tops arc missing, Laurie said. The bridge is a two-span bridge but the centre pier of the structure has "a significant amount of erosion", said Laurie. The west abutment of the bridge has pretty severe surface damage, he went on. On the east stone abutment, the pointing between the stones is crumbling and stones are starting to shift. Pletch explained that the original stone supports of the bridge had been patched with concrete over the years. "If it had a heritage designation, it would have to be- repaired with cut stone from the bed of the river." That would be hugely expensive, he said. In photos under the bridge came what Pletch calls "the money shot". Light could be seen through the rust spots on one of the stringers holding the deck of the bridge. The roads department's initial estimate of $100,000 to $150,000 in short-term repairs to make the safe enough to open again was based on the premise that two of these steel girders would have to be replaced, Pletch said, but he wouldn't be surprised if more needed replacing when they actually began the repairs. If it had been on a county road where salt was used in winter, this bridge would have been replaced 50 years ago, Pletch noted. But the news from the July council meeting had created a groundswell of support to retaining the bridge, support that had even an opponent of the effort choosing his words carefully. South Huron councillor Ken Oke admitted "I got myself into,a lot of trouble for what I said" at the July meeting about the 1988 council not being brave enough to tear down the bridge when a new county bridge was built to the south and his opinion that no more money should be spent the old bridge. But most heritage projects are something you look at, you don't use, said Oke. To make a good job of restoring Ball's Bridge might cost $1 million, he suggested. "And even if -it was restored it wouldn't be used for traffic. I'm in full agreement it should be closed for traffic, but we can say it is for use as a walking bridge." Goderich councillor Deb Shewfelt felt the bridge should have been downloaded to the local municipalities 20 years ago, and while he was in favour of honour- ing the bridge's historic value, as soon as the bridge is repaired it should be turned over to Central Huron and Ashfield-Colborne- WawanOsh which the bridge joins, he said, Others looked for a private public partnership to rescue the bridge. "In the end of the day it is the history and the heritage that will save it," said Morley. "Somebody needs to take hold of it." Huron East councillor Joe Seili suggested the committee that maintains the West Montrose covered bridge is a model for how to maintain a heritage bridge. "We should look at how they did it." Bert Dykstra, chair of the planning, agriculture and public works committee, said he didn't think council could sit on a decision on the bridge for long, though with its closure to traffic, there was "a bit of a reprieve" to allow exploration of alterna- tives.