Cowan St. vs The Trail For Hydro Poles

Our councilor Tony Madden (Ward 4) is a committee member on the Trails for Life, this is the group pushing for the 65 foot hydro poles to be placed on Cowan St. Our councilor Tony Madden has listened to concerns about WiFi in schools(Orillia Packet Article), but will just dump high voltage power lines on our street, the people he represents. Read what the Environmental Protection Agency has to say about power lines(EPA link). Next Monday Ms. Colleen Genno will be talking to council about the dangers of WiFi in our new library. This is the same night that the hydro pole issue will be discussed before council. Luckily our other councilor Andrew Hill has championed the cause and realizes the hydro poles on the trail bother no one and are hardly noticeable. I walked the trail and took a few pictures, all I found was bush and small trees. All of these trees and bush will grow back very fast. It is also my understanding that the area is already pruned every few years anyway. What surprised me most was actually the lack of any large trees in this section of the trail. I would guess that the land is too swampy and any large tree cannot get a deep root system. So mother nature has already spoken and said no large trees between Cowan and Borland on the trail. Notice how current hydro poles are hardly noticeable in the trail area. Near the bottom is a picture of some of the guy wires on snake path used to support a 65 foot pole, what a mess that is. How would this fit into our small little street? Also if you are up late at night walk over to the hydro wires at Cowan and North, you can hear a low hum coming from the wires. This is something you do not want to have right in front of your house. These wires will greatly reduce property values on our street and the city can stop this insanity now. For many people buying a home represents their largest single investment, they cannot afford to lose 10 to 20 % of the value of their home. For many people this represents their retirement savings, this is money they will never get back and have worked very hard to get.

This should be a non issue, the hydro poles should be put down in the trail area. The trail area is full of bush which grows back really fast and the poles are hardly noticeable. Putting this size of pole on Cowan St is insane. We all love the trail but what good is a nice trail if we find it necessary to destroy the neighborhoods around it.

Historic Frost House with new hydro guy wires read more about the Frost House. At least we have an option to have these poles put down in the trail before they mess up our street.