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By Stephen Vance -
As you will be able to read in the Meaford Express tomorrow, or on their website now, I took a little drive out to Bognor on Sunday after MPP Bill Murdoch told me on Saturday that they would be installing their own bridge.
Mr. Murdoch phoned me on Sunday morning to confirm that they would be getting to work at 10 a.m., so I grabbed my notebook and a camera and hopped in the car. I wasn’t quite certain of what to expect when I got there, but I knew it would be an interesting story.
When I arrived in Bognor, I parked my car, and found my way onto the property of Bognor resident Al Aucoin. It was quite apparent that I was in the right place since there was a large pre-fabricated bridge sitting atop a trailer.
A 35 year old Case tractor owned by Murdoch, was hitched to the trailer, and neighbour Scott McCrae was skillfully maneuvering the bridge around a tight corner while Murdoch was acting as a second set of eyes.
Talk about small town determination!
The residents of Bognor have been understandably frustrated with the glacial pace of progress in getting their decommissioned bridge replaced. And while it might not have seemed very serious to some that a handful of families have had to take alternate routes as a result of the Harris Bridge being taken out of service, to these hard working families it has been a major inconvenience.
A seven km detour on the way to Owen Sound to pick up some groceries while frustrating, is minor compared to the daily inconveniences that many people outside of Bognor might not have considered. A trip to the post office to collect the mail for example should be a short jaunt across the bridge, not a 14 km round trip. A 10 year old boy wanting to ride his bike over to a friends house becomes a family outing as it requires a parent to fire up the family car and drive the long way. At some point, that child will also want to come home, so a parent will have to hop in the car again.
The pedestrian bridge, which was built and donated to the cause by Jim Hawkins of Les Hawkins Welding near Markdale, took less than two weeks to build, and was in place over the creek within two hours.
Residents of the area were jubilant once the bridge was in place. With their connection to the village of Bognor reestablished, and permission from property owner Aucoin to cut across his property to use the bridge, some small daily tasks had just become much, much easier.
You really can’t blame the residents of Bognor for being annoyed after a year of this kind of inconvenience…
