Road conditions and infrastructure have been a high priority  item for both local residents and County Council.

Lutz Mayer, a resident of Rossmore, is asking Council to fix the conditions of Ridley and Reddick streets in the village, after outlining the “long-standing problem” at Thursday’s Committee of the Whole meeting.

Mayer, who has lived on Ridley Street with his wife for 15 years, wrote a letter of appeal last March explaining the “terrible road conditions.”

He said the streets have become impossible to navigate, noting school busses and vehicles have to dodge large potholes that have become worse year after year. The worst parts of the road, he said, are the intersection of Rednersville Road and Ridley Street as well as near the Bay Bridge.

Mayer said in the 15 years he has lived in Rossmore, the conditions have never improved and explained the current patching process that takes place annually.

“An asphalt truck comes by, fills up its holes, regardless of whether there’s water in there or not, and leaves it up to the residents to actually drive their cars over the asphalt to pack it down,” he said.

There are a total of 75 residences that live on these two streets, he said, and two busses that drive down those streets twice a day. Mayer urged Council to find a permanent solution to this problem.

“It’s asking an awful lot for the residents of both streets on a daily basis to navigate those huge holes and over all these years, this has never really been addressed,” he said. “I got feedback from people that they feel abandoned by the County, and some of those individuals have lived here for longer than 20 years.”

Mayer also posed the question on why Ridley Street and Reddick Street have never been on the radar for road re-surfacing at budget time.

“There’s a bunch of roads that have been approved for road resurfacing streets in the County. There’s 10 of them I understand and $2.4 million has been targeted,” he said. “If they would have just taken the extra asphalt and at least did Reddick Street, which is much smaller in length, it would have shown a lot of goodwill.”

Coun. Maynard echoed Mayer’s concern, saying it is likely much more than 15 years that these streets have been neglected.

“Ridley Street has been on the list several times over the last 10 years, but then has for one reason or another fallen off,” she said. “As an Ameliasburgh councillor, I recognize those are urban streets and certainly deserve better than some broken up asphalt.”

The deputation was received by council, and acting chair Coun. Margetson said operations staff will take this into consideration to work on a solution.