[YARMOUTH, NS] — Disgruntled residents of Herbert Street and Carol Avenue are fed up with the dust, noise and appearance of a site in the neighbourhood being used to store gravel for the Pleasant Street infrastructure project.
Aberdeen Paving arranged the use of the property, behind the former Motor Mart location, through the owner. The town was not involved in the decision.
The residents are upset that repeated requests to council to do something about the matter haven’t had satisfactory results.
“We have asked for things since last summer and we have got nothing, absolutely nothing,” said Harry Frost in a presentation he made – with fellow area residents Ruth Gavel and Dwayne Murphy – to the May 12 meeting of council.
“It boggles my mind that the town would allow something like this to be set up in town,” said Frost.
The project was supposed to have been finished by March 31. When the company wasn’t able to meet the deadline, the government gave them a reprieve, which means another season of construction.
Mayor Phil Mooney and CAO Jeff Gushue did visit the property and instructed that no more material be brought on site, but residents say it is still being dumped and that there is still a great deal of dust and noise caused by machinery moving material.
“Now it seems that the truck drivers have been instructed to make as much noise as possible,” said Frost.
“I am concerned that some of your concerns are not being answered,” said councillor Ken Langille, responding to the presentation. “There’s obviously some deep frustration here. If I was in your shoes I’d be screaming and ranting and raving too."
Langille turned to Gushue for direction after the residents presented a list of eight requests.
“The best way to respond to these eight questions is with action to improve your quality of life,” said Gushue.
“You’ve made some fairly constructive suggestions here,” he added, promising to talk to engineers and the contractor heading the project and to meet with the residents afterwards.
“I understand the issue. Nobody has told you they’re sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry that you have to go through this. This is the second summer. We’ll do what we can to improve the situation as quickly as possible,” said Gushue.
