[Smevo]

Cape Breton Post

A bit on the light-hearted side.

Dog group prepares to unleash new park

Section: News

By Chris Hayes,

Dog owners in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality who want to open an off-leash park have found a location for their pet project.

Veterinarian Dr. Rebecca Korven, who has purchased five acres of land to open a new clinic, is giving the Sydney Off-leash Dog Park group the use of some four acres of the property, says organizer Steven Rolls of Sydney.

Dogs love to romp off the leash and to play with other dogs, said Rolls, who owns a rambunctious Lab-border collie mix named Mackie.

The park is also a safe environment, he said.

"Most of the places where I have seen dog parks, it's just a safe area where you can take your dogs and let them run. It is fenced off, you don't have to worry about traffic, you don't have to worry about them getting away from you."

Rolls said the park also provides a comfort level for people who don't own dogs and may be frightened of the animals.

The land is located on Keltic Drive about 1.5 kilometres from Wal-Mart in Sydney River, according to an informative website at http://www.sydneydogpark.com.

Rolls hoped to start breaking ground on the park in the spring, developing an area for all dogs at first and a separate area for smaller ones later. There may also be a wooded area for dogs at a later date.

Rolls said dog owners would be required to clean up after their pets.

The group is putting together a society and plans to raise money to cover the costs of insurance and some basic infrastructure like a fence, benches and garbage cans.

The park would be open to non-society members, he noted.

It would be a social scene for dog owners too, said Rolls.

"Dog owners have a tendency of clicking really well with each other and just having somewhere where everybody has something in common - which is owning a dog - it automatically drops barriers and people tend to converse and make new friends."

Rolls also hoped to have dog training and other activity days at the park to encourage responsible pet ownership.

More than 1,000 people joined a Facebook group supporting the off-leash park plan, he noted in the group's first newsletter.

Rolls suggested there could be other similar parks across the regional municipality.

Local resident Aaron Andrews, as well as the veterinarian, is also donating the use of the land, the website notes.

This mentions the twinning of hwy125 (Sydney Bypass)...that story ran earlier but I can't easily access it right now. They're finally twinning the section east of Sydney River all the way through to the Glace Bay highway, a section rated worse than Hwy 101 (pre-twinning) for safety.

Province hoping to repave Highway 125 over prematurely failing asphalt

Section: News

By Tom Ayers,

The Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal is considering repaving Highway 125 between Sydney River and Grand Lake Road over complaints the asphalt surface is becoming unsafe.

At a public open house meeting on the twinning of Highway 125, Jan. 16, one audience member questioned the province about the existing condition of the two-lane road surface, which has become rutted in places.

"We recognize it is a safety hazard," said Jamie Chisholm, eastern district highway construction manager, adding the province is seeking a cost estimate for rutting and pothole repairs and hopes to have the work done this year.

In a telephone interview last week, Chisholm backed away from his comment on safety, but said the surface is showing signs of premature asphalt failure and the department has received a number of complaints.

Chisholm said the highway was paved in 2002, but that warranties typically expire after one year, so the province will be on the hook for the repair cost.

He added, though, that the project would likely not require extensive road bed preparation or shoulder work, simply a new surface.

"I wouldn't go as far as to say it's a safety hazard," Chisholm said. "It's not ideal, but I think we realize there are ruts there that are a concern.

"We recognize that the asphalt is starting to fail prematurely."

Chisholm said he is getting a cost estimate to repave the entire two-lane length of Highway 125 between Sydney River and Grand Lake Road, the same 8.6-kilometre stretch that is currently in the planning stages to be twinned as a divided, four-lane highway.

He said ideally, any new paving would be done at the same time as the twinning project, which is tentatively scheduled for 2011, depending on funding.

However, "I don't think we can wait that long," Chisholm added.

Edit...another 3 years after over 20 of already waiting for the promise to be fulfilled, and this section still doesn't complete the full length of the highway as promised, but at least it finally does the worst and most highly travelled section.

Edit again...I guess things take so long to move around here that I forgot they announced the other section to be twinned last year.

Blue is already twinned, red is this section they mentioned (the worst section of highway in the province), green is the section they announced last year (still no construction started on it).