“Sometimes the road less travelled is less travelled for a reason.” This quote from comedian Jerry Seinfeld has become the mantra for River Avenue resident Pat Eckel Neufeld and her husband, Dale, who are fed up with the poor condition of their road. Recently, Eckel Neufeld reached out to city councillor Marty Bishop with her concerns, which Bishop, in turn, shared with his peers during Monday’s (June 10) meeting of Meadow Lake city council.
“I got a call from a couple of residents on River Avenue,” Bishop explained. “The road is really, really bad there. It’s muddy. Now, I know it’s been raining a lot and we can’t really do much, but apparently this road has been in disrepair for quite some time. It’s in dire need of some gravel, so we might want to take a look at that.” When contacted by Northern Pride, Eckel Neufeld further described the condition of River Avenue and the ongoing efforts she and her husband have made throughout the years to have the city address the problem.
“I’ve been phoning (city hall) quite often and leaving messages, telling the city we need a grader, we need gravel or whatever down our road,” Eckel Neufeld said. “The people where you work (Northern Pride), they bring our newspaper to us each week and they know what it’s like. It’s a godawful road. This didn’t just happen overnight. This has been for years and years and years. We’ve been fighting with the town over this for a long time.” Eckel Neufeld went on to say River Avenue is supposed to be a gravel road, but it’s mostly mud right now because there’s been no gravel placed there in some time. “I don’t remember the last time gravel was put on this road,” she added. “Nothing has ever been properly done with it.”
Bishop, meanwhile, also told council the Neufelds have been trying to get out of their driveway with their motorhome to go on holidays, but to no avail. Eckel Neufeld confirmed this as well. “It’s total mud,” she said. “You can’t walk down it without rubber boots on. I had my mom’s car here, a regular, small car. I had to take it back and start using my half-ton because the car was too low and I was bottoming out on this road because of all the mud. We also want to go out with our motorhome and we can’t get out. My husband said he may be able to try this or that, but I said no because we will rip out the undercarriage of our bus, and then where would be we be? Or, we would slide off into the ditch, and then where would we be? The town isn’t going to fix our bus.”
The couple has lived on River Avenue since 1994. “The road has been in rough shape for at least the past 10 years,” Eckel Neufeld said. “You can drive down it a little more easily now because there has been traffic on it, but, if you were to meet another vehicle, I can’t see how you would get by… You can’t.”
During Monday’s meeting Bishop asked if the city could look into the Neufelds concerns, one of which also involves high grass growing on city-owned property behind their home. “These people’s property borders along the (city) pond where there is a lot of tall grass,” Bishop said. “It’s not a real problem now, but if it dries out it could become a real fire hazard there.” Again, Eckel Neufeld echoed Bishop’s comments. “We’ve also been fighting with the city about the high grass around us,” she noted. “In behind our property, where the water ponds are, the grass has to be about eight feet high. It never gets cut… It’s such a mess, the mower can’t even get in there anymore, and it keeps getting worse and worse every year. It was a huge concern last year when things were so dry. We could see, if a fire started, it could easily get out of hand like the fire in Fort McMurray… In the meantime, we’re supposed to cut our grass and, if it gets more than six inches, you get a fine. Yet, this is town property. Why don’t they have to mow their grass?”
In response to Bishop’s comments Monday evening, mayor Merlin Seymour suggested the address in question be passed along to city manager Diana Burton so she could look into the concerns further, “It’s always a wait and see thing with the city,” Eckel Neufeld said. Come Tuesday morning (June 11), city workers were observed laying gravel in the vicinity of River Avenue.