Municipal officials in Inverness Co. say they’re concerned about rural road maintenance following a couple recent storms.
Betty Ann MacQuarrie, Warden, says some of those roads didn’t get plowed out for a number of days.
She says she understands that there’s an order of priority, but you can’t forget about people in the rural areas.
MacQuarrie tells The Hawk it’s a county-wide concern.
“Each of the councillors had issues which fall under the responsibility of the Department of Transportation, provincially.”
MacQuarrie says roads have been eroding down through the years- so has the funding.
She says resources created a concern.
“It was kind of concluded that perhaps DTIR (Department of Transportation & Infrastructure Renewal) don’t have enough equipment to handle what this winter seems to be throwing at us.”
MacQuarrie says tight budgets are understandable, but rural maintenance is suffering.
She says they’ve been working on getting a meeting with Lloyd Hines, Minister of TIR and Guysborough-Eastern Shore-Tracadie MLA; they’re hoping for that discussion as soon as possible.
MacQuarrie says when people are trapped in rural areas, it creates a concern in case of emergency.
She says there was also concern raised for an area following the storm because there’s no cell coverage- landlines were also interrupted during the storm.