A nearly 6-year delay in the repairing and reopening of the 7th Ave bridge has led two families to bring their demands before City Council at the latest meeting on Monday, Nov. 23.

In 2015, when an ice flow damaged the east pilings on the bridge, the city moved to temporarily close the bridge to vehicle access. In the meantime, the Thorn and Avery families, residing on the south side of the bridge, were forced to travel through the grounds of the Valley View Centre onto Highway #2 in order to access the city.

However, no repairs of the bridge have been made in that time that has elapsed, and what began as an inconvenience has now escalated. When Valley View was sold, its new owners placed a locked gate at the entrance of the facility meaning that the Thorns and Averys have to travel the two-kilometre detour to unlock the gate every time visitors enter and leave. Tim Avery laid out some of the families most basic concerns during last night's public forum.

"The closure of this bridge is not just a minor inconvenience but a major disruption in the daily lives of the families that live on the south side...With no easy access to ambulance, fire, or police services, what are we homeowners or the users of the park area going to do in the case of an emergency, and what is the liability of the City if such an emergency was to happen?"

This is not the first time that the Averys and Thorns have made their concerns known to City Hall. The families and their legal counsel, David Chow, met with Mayor Fraser Tolmie and the city administration on Jan. 24, 2020. Follow-up meetings in April showed that no progress had been made in obtaining a report on the costs of repairing or replacing the bridge.

"[That meeting]," explained Chow, "ended with the city manager [Jim Puffalt] confirming that the administration would recommend against repairing or replacing the 7th Ave. bridge. If the families wanted anything to be done about it, they were invited to appear before City Council." 

The families did just that, but were not allowed to be a part of the discussion due to the meeting being moved to an in-camera session that was not open to the public. City officials told Chow that the discussion was of such a private and sensitive nature, that it warranted a closed-door meeting. 

"The entire process," argued Chow, "lacked the transperancy necessary and the use of the privacy legislation was an abuse of process by the City."

Later attempts to reach out to administration were denied and no further progress was reported. Chow requested that the mayor and councillors look at this matter themselves and not hand the issue off to administration to review in secret.

"I implore you to hold administration accountable in this matter."

In her address to Council on behalf of her family, Deb Thorn went as far as to accuse administration of trying to thwart their every effort to reopen the bridge. As evidence, she cited a previous solution proposed by city administration. Before the sale of the Valley View property to private owners, administration had made plans with the provincial government to cost-share the building of an unlit gravel road through the property to connect residents to Highway #2. Thorn maintained that such a fix was highly undesirable and was an example of administration's attempt to find any solution other than repairing the bridge.

"We're done with city administration's delays, non-disclosures, and secret meetings about us without [our presence]."

After working unsuccessfully to get administration to come up with a plan to reopen the bridge, the Thorn and Avery families decided to create a plan of their own.

"We are proposing that Council immediately reopen the west lane of the 7th Ave bridge to local traffic and that they do so before Christmas," insisted Thorn. "Only three of the pilings were damaged by ice, all of which were under the east lane of the bridge. None of the pilings on the west lane were damaged thanks to heavy iron ice breakers that were installed in 1998."

A massive ice flow in 2015 heavily damaged a number of pilings on the east side of the 7th Ave bridge, prompting the City to close it to vehicular traffic. (File photo).

Thorn admits that reopening the west lane would only be a band-aid fix but that further work to repair the east pilings could be done at a minimal cost, preferably before summer. Ultimately, the families are requesting that the city makes plans to upgrade or replace the bridge before the end of the decade.

"This not only ensures the safety of our families," continued Thorn, "but also returns the quality of life that we are entitled to tax-paying citizens." 

The Thorns and Averys have requested to attend the next sitting of City Council to follow up on their request.

Mayor Fraser Tolmie questioned city manager Jim Puffalt as to the status of the families' request. Puffalt explained that plans were in the works.

"We believed that [the request] was reasonable and so we engaged a consultant to look at the bridge and see if the request is feasible. They were on-site on Friday [Nov. 20] and we expect to get some answers in three weeks."

Until the results of that study are known, it is difficult to say how this dilemma will proceed for the Thorns and Averys. For now, they will have to continue taking the Valley View detour, something that Thorn believes is unacceptable.

"It's time for the City of Moose Jaw to finally what is legally and morally right."