South Glengarry would become responsible for two Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry county roads and the main drag in Lancaster, while North Glengarry would take over Main Street in Alexandria, if a contentious county proposal goes through.
But the plan faces roadblocks, particularly in South Glengarry where council members oppose the shifts, saying the additional costs would lead to tax increases.
In South Glengarry, County Roads 17 and 26 would be reclassified as local roads and transferred to the township, according to a roads rationalization study presented by SDG Director of Transportation Ben de Haan to the townships at their councils’ most recent meetings. SDG would also download the part of County Road 34 that is the main street in Lancaster.
In North Glengarry the municipality would become responsible for Main Street in Alexandria, which is part of County Road 34. The county would fund its sections north and south of town. The transfer would allow the municipality to manage its portion of the road according to community needs, while ensuring no restrictions or changes occur which would affect county roads.
Four roads in South Glengarry were assessed in the study: SDG 17 and 26, South Service and Tyotown/Rae.
Tyotown/Rae and South Service do not meet all the guidelines for a county road, in part because of weight restrictions on South Service Road and the amount of development on Tyotown/Rae Road, de Haan said.
But councillors took issue with these findings, particularly since South Service Road is often used as a detour by traffic when there is an incident on Highway 401. In addition, County Road 2 has more development than Tyotown/Rae Road and yet remains as a maintained county road.
In North Glengarry, three roads, Athol, SDG County Road 21 and McCormick/Power Dam Road, were assessed according to the criteria established by the review team. During the study, it was discovered that McCormick/Power Dam experiences more traffic than expected, raising some concern whether it is correctly classified and being serviced appropriately. Ben de Haan suggested measures to deter traffic from using it as a through road should be considered, thus directing more traffic onto the appropriate county roads.
In total, 11 roads were assessed across the three counties with a total of five roads being earmarked for reclassification.
