Thanks to the work of Stephanie Line-Toohill and Mark Walker who advocated for saving the Middlebrook Bridge to Centre Wellington council, CW has
voted to bring a motion back to Council in November to reconsider it’s decision to remove Middlebrook Bridge.
Staff were directed to bring financing details to that meeting so Council can re-look at feasible options for rehabilitation/replacement before voting again to continue with this process.
If Council votes in favour at that meeting they will take a motion to Woolwich Township to ask their Council to reconsider its decision to remove the bridge.
The fight for the bridge is far from over, so please continue to add your voice and support to Stephanie and Mark. There has been a great deal of support from the Guelph trail coalition group (~2000) and the G2G. Is there any way WCC could officially add their support since many clubs rides used the bridge regularly on club rides prior to it being barricaded?
Centre Wellington council will be meeting to reconsider rehabilitating the Middlebrook Bridge this month.
Councillor Kirk McElwain is leading the motion for Council to debate this issue and is paying attention to your letters and will highlight your concerns to Council.
I received an email from Councillor McElwain suggesting I send specifically to Mayor Linton, Councillor MacRae and Councillor Foster not onside in the first vote.
So even if you have already sent email to Woolwich and Centre Wellington, please take a few minutes to do so again. We only need one of the above 3 council members to change the decision to of Centre Wellington rehabilitate the bridge rather than close it. (Woolwich will be meeting even later for the same decision provided CW passes). Unfortunately we need to bring it to members for each meeting, but again it only takes a few minutes of your time to potentially be able to enjoy the bridge and all the routes the use it in the future.
Find email addresses for Centre Wellington Council here:
It boggles the mind that they are considering destroying an ~80 year old landmark with so much active transportation value over $300K. A very straightforward capital campaign could raise that amount in a few months.
Some good news! I will try and paraphrase Stephanie Lines Toohill’s announcement for those of you not on the newsletter or checking the facebook page.
Monday night Centre Wellington Council voted to reconsider alternative steps for the bridge OTHER than removal.
This is very lengthy process, it appears that the next step is to get Woolwich to reconsider.
So, again, if you could email (or even just copy what you sent to CW council) the Woolwich Township Council and ask them to join CW Council and reconsider their decision to remove the bridge.Their addresses are found on this page:
My apologizes for this super short notice, but TODAY at 1PM the Centre Wellington council is meeting to discus the Middlebrook bridge. There has been a new report issued regarding the costs for the various bridge options here:
From Stephanie Lines-Toohill and Mark Walker:
"Despite our best efforts, it is not good news at this point. Staff are recommending to Council that they reaffirm their decision to: “Remove Bridge Without Replacement as the preferred alternative for the Middlebrook Truss Bridge Municipal Class Environmental Assessment.”
Councillor Kirk McElwain is again gathering information and documents to speak in favour of rehabilitating the bridge at next Tuesday’s meeting. We were not given enough time to prepare a delegation to speak to this latest report. We are hoping Council will agree to defer this decision to give us more time to find alternative funding options. We followed up with Ted Arnott yesterday who had liaised with us and Sandy Shantz, Mayor of Woolwich Township, just prior to Christmas to find possible provincial funding sources. Councillor McElwain is also waiting to hear back from staff whom were given grant details that could support a heritage bridge rehabilitation project.
One new change in this report is a recommendation for a Staged Approach which would remove the bridge structure in 2028 with Centre Wellington covering costs of a new bridge five years later to allow for budgeting. However, this would mean an ELEVEN YEAR wait for a safe active transportation route whilst removing an important heritage landmark. Although, this does show some consideration for alternative suggestions."
If you have a chance to send a quick email to the Mayor to at least ask the Council to defer their decision allowing the community proper time to look for funding. There is no real reason why the decision can’t be delayed given the amount of time that’s being given to do anything the to bridge at all.
Can someone provide a location for the bridge, or a map screenshot? Some people may want to show up for the photo but might not know where the bridge is…
I rode my bike down to Middlebrook bridge today to partipate in the photo op. I was expecting 10 to 15 people to show up. To my surprise there were over 30 there!
Mark Walker was there making a statement to the Observer.
Watch for the picture (with my bike) in this week’s Observer - - observerxtra.com
I wonder if they’ve thought about applying to the Feds for funding to rehabilitate the bridge. There must be Federal investment dollars allocated to active transportation initiatives and 300-400K is not a significant amount of funding. You could likely raise that via private fundraising here locally with a proper campaign. I’ll be really disappointed if they destroy that bridge.
