Ferry closure putting pressure on roads, businesses

“When you’re taking grain trucks and that, it can be up to two hours to drive around, to bring our equipment, it was four hours,” she said. “That’s unacceptable, it’s ridiculous.”

This is cause of concern for a lot of reasons including degrading gravel roads, increase in time and fuel costs and lost business.

In Weldon, the local Co-op is feeling the crunch. Manager Elaine Chandler said their core business is fuel sales.

With the ferry closed, their people are going elsewhere for fuel or their trucks have to drive excessive distances to keep customers.

Chandler, who’s worked at the Co-op for 37 years, said closing after all this time might be a very real possibility if the ferry stays closed too long.

“Fuel sales are the operation of this business. If we don’t have fuel, we’re done,” she said.

“So far, we’ve been okay, but we’re not going to be when it gets busy because there’s no way we can afford to travel that far.”

Meanwhile, the added traffic means worse roads and more congestion. Trucks and farm equipment are required to take long detours to avoid driving on roads with a thin asphalt membrane.

The added traffic is a growing concern. Teena Logodin has started an email campaign to raise awareness of the problem.

She said that even if it’s hard to understand the plight of farmers, people will understand once they’re stuck behind a 30-foot-wide combine driving through the city.

“They’d have to go down 15th Street all the way to Sixth Avenue East and go up the hill,” she said.

“Some of those vehicles have three wheels on each side. Can you imagine having those drive through the city?

“We seem to just complain and move on, and I think we have to start telling our politicians what we want and get them doing what we hired them to do.”

The province said the road can’t be opened due to safety concerns. Brad Wall told paNOW his government wanted to open the ferry, but it was unfortunately on a long list of things in need of repair.

“Our officials are looking at way to reopen it as soon as possible,” he said.

“We’re going to have to look very carefully at a fairly broad based program to try to cut a deal with some of the rebuilding.

“It’s something that we’re hearing from our MLAs loud and clear … so it’s top of mind.”

But the Saskatchewan NDP doesn’t think that’s good enough. In a news release, NDP transportation critic Len Taylor said Wall and his government aren’t responding fast enough and that the local farmers and businesses are suffering as a result.

“They are waiting for information that was promised to them months ago, information that has a direct impact on their livelihoods and the economy of communities such as Kinistino, Weldon, and Melfort,” he said in a release.

“Local residents have also come forward with constructive suggestions for short-term measures that could be taken while a long-term fix is planned. The government just isn’t listening.”

But most of the talk from political parties is just that. People in the area have been calling asking for responses and answers, but to no avail.

Without solid answers farmers and businesses, like the Soloduchas have no option but to deal with the added miles fuel costs.

“You fight bugs, you fight disease, but here we don’t even know who to fight. We’re not really sure what to do,” said Pat Soloducha.

adesouza@panow.com

by Andrew de Souza

Ferry closure putting pressure on roads, businesses

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