With a boisterous debate on the prospect of a Roundabout at McBride and Second Avenue West making the rounds through the growing number of Social Media forums in Prince Rupert in the last week, Mayor Herb Pond went to the Whiteboard to try to sell the City's vision for the project to a somewhat skeptical collective.
Releasing his TED like Talk on Roudabouts through his own Social Media Portal, Mr. Pond provided a checklist of sorts as to why the Roundabout will be a valuable addition to the cityscape.
Most of it highlighting the delivery of provincial funding for the infrastructure that will be underneath the roadway and how it could also be the spur for development of more affordable housing for the community,
The Mayor also acknowledging that a portion of the Court House land and a few of its trees, will be taken out to provide for the Roundabout.
Something that my yet generate more debate before the first shovel hits the ground ...
And while the Rondabout Talk was useful in trying to put out the grassfire of public opinion percolating towards the project.
Considering events from earlier last week, it made for a curious priority list for public conversation, what with the City's Water system seemingly near collapse again on Tuesday evening, the Mayor having recounted for CBC Vancouver of the near Armageddon scenario that was presented to civic crews late into the evening on October 17th.
The local media was a little slower to picking up on the theme of Armageddon, both the weekly paper and TV7 noting of the apparently perilous situation later in the week.
While CFNR radio noted of the incident a few days earlier, but without the end is nigh approach of the other two media groups.
Prince Rupert still awaiting federal funds after major water main break
Prince Rupert Water System Collapsing (video)
Boil Water Notice issued in Prince Rupert as crews work tirelessly overnight to patch new water main breaks
Regardless of the approach to the story, it clearly was a concerning situation for the community and one perhaps more worthy of a TED talk than the roundabout was, the Whiteboard after all an instrument that was used for water issues in August.
So, with words like a threats of evacuation hovering over the city as the Northern View noted, or water system collapsing as CFTK TV observed: perhaps a return to the Whiteboard to explain just what happened on Tuesday night would have helped
First to provide details as to what exactly led to the emergency event, as well as to indicate if there isn't perhaps some kind of double safety procedure the city could implement to avoid the situation again.
After that, maybe a bit of an explanation as to what the City might have in mind when it comes to evacuating an entire community and where exactly everyone is going to be dispatched should the worst come to pass.
Finally, maybe some kind of idea as to what the City plans to do should the Federal government remain tied up in the bureaucratic ways of the flow of federal funding.
Fortunately for the residents of the community, there is an opportunity for a more fulsome review of the events of last Tuesday, that comes this evening with the last Public City Council Session for October tonight.
The Agenda for the evening offers a few spots during the session where more information sharing could take place.
Operations Director Richard Pucci is set to provide a Major Projects update, the Mayor or Council members could take advantage of that presentation to ask him the questions above.
Since infrastructure is on the Agenda, it could even make for a question from the Public in the Public comments portion of tonight's session.
Or, Mayor Pond could use the the Council Comment period at the end of the session for a community update on the near dire situation from Tuesday.
If he doesn't take up the opportunity for comment, the six members of Council could always bring up the topic.
Regardless of who takes the initiative, almost seven days since the event, there should be some form of public account of what happened and what steps are required to ensure that at least the most recent scenario doesn't happen again.
A look at the past work on Infrastructure can be reviewed here.
Our preview of tonight's Council Session can be explored here.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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