From Blyth Citizen July 13/ 06
By Keith Roulston

Measuring good government

There’s a delicate balance between, on one side, those who believe government is a necessary evil required to provide infrastructure like roads or police and those, on the other, who think government can lead people in new directions that can improve lives. At last week’s session of Huron County council, councillors made one decision, and indicated willingness to make another, that showed they’re on the first side.

For those who believe the role of politicians is to save taxpayers
money, both decisions seem unquestionable. In the one decision that was
made, councillors voted to demolish the overpass that takes County Rd.
25 over the old CP Rail right of way, west of Blyth. On a practical,
thinkof- today level, this makes perfect sense. It’s certainly cheaper to fill
in the area than to rebuild a bridge over a railway that doesn’t exist. As
county engineer Don Pletch put it: “Rather than pay money to maintain a bridge we don’t need, why not eliminate the bridge.”

Likewise, several councillors gave indications they’re not in favour of
spending any more money to keep historic Ball’s Bridge, south of
Auburn, in use. The bridge has been closed since April and after a
council vote, will remain closed until next year. But with $100,000 to $150,000 in immediate repairs, and perhaps an equal amount needed in the next two to five years, councillors expressed doubt about the expense.

If you believe politicians’s sole job is to protect taxpayers’ dollars,
these decisions make perfect sense. You can see the money being saved.

But it’s trickier to judge the value of things that can’t be measured.

Ball’s Bridge, for instance, is part of a popular scenic drive around
the beautiful Little Lakes district near Benmiller. Thousands of people
drive that route every year, especially to see the fall colours. But who can
measure that? Who knows the value of that bridge to the county’s
tourism infrastructure? As Bluewater councillor Paul Klopp pointed out, at one time the covered bridge at West Montrose was an unnecessary remnant of the past in a progressive road system. As such bridges became rarer, however, the covered bridge became a tourist Mecca.
If soft items like tourism are hard to measure, potential ones are even
more difficult. It took public intervention to convince Blyth council
in 1974 that it was worth replacing the roof of Blyth Memorial Hall to
keep the seldom-used theatre portion of the building in operation. Now the
building hosts the Blyth Festival, one of the drivers of the local
economy.

Blyth residents are only beginning to see the economic potential of the
massive campground developed by the Huron Pioneer Thresher and
Hobby Association and improved by the Twp. of North Huron. With 800
campsites full this week for Campvention, tripling the village’s
population, the campground’s value is demonstrated.

For more than a decade, there’s been dormant potential, too, in the old
Guelph-to-Goderich CP rail line. Though local opposition initially
killed the idea of a trail along the line, someday, as farmers seek to
diversify revenues, the possibilities of income from hikers and horse-back riders will become more apparent, even to the opponents.

But destruction of the Blyth overpass will hinder, or even block
forever, that possibility. Mason Bailey, former reeve of Blyth, says he
thought he had convinced officials, during his term on county
council, to install a large culvert to keep the trail open but that solution has been abandoned, and with it, the possibility of a hiking trail, a tourist
attraction to take people from one of the fastest-growing regions of Ontario
around Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo, to the Lake Huron shoreline.
Your opinion on council’s decisions will depend on your view of
government. We’ll know the money that was saved because we can see it.

We’ll never know the money that may have been lost.— KR