A debate over the name of a proposed Fort 91原创 trail saw Township Councillors Bob Long and Charlie Fox clash over a proposal to use a double name instead of picking from three choices suggested by the council heritage advisory committee.
Long, the co-chair of the committee, said the name ought be either McBride Trail, Station Trail or Mavis Trail, as recommended by the advisory body.
Fox said the route would 鈥渕ost appropriately鈥� be named 鈥淢cBride - Station Trail鈥� which combines two of the three names suggested by the committee.
Long said that was a poor choice because the trail runs near the historic CNR train station.
鈥淭here is no McBride [railway] station,鈥� Long said.
鈥淭his is just going to confuse the public and dilute our history.鈥�
Other councillors disagreed.
鈥淲ith the hyphen in there, you鈥檙e separating the two [names],鈥� Bev Dornan said.
鈥淲ith the hyphen, I think it鈥檚 fine.鈥�
Councillor Grant Ward suggested sending the double-barreled name back to the heritage committee for more input, but couldn鈥檛 muster enough support from the rest of council.
Long said council should simply follow the committee recommendations it asked for.
鈥淭hey gave us three suggestions,鈥� Long said.
鈥淭his [hyphenated name] is not one of them.鈥�
Long complained council is too willing to override its own committee.
鈥淭his is not the first time we鈥檝e poked them in the eye.鈥�
Councillor Michelle Sparrow said the committee鈥檚 role is to advise council, 鈥渂ut it is up to council to decide to accept the advice.鈥�
When the proposal came to a vote, the majority approved the name with councillors Ward, Kim Richter and David Davis voting no.
Long refused to participate in the vote.
The trail will run near a new townhouse development along McBride Street and what used to be Station Road.
When the townhouse project was discussed at a May 6 public hearing, Jasmine Marjanovic, president of the neighbouring McBride Street Townhouses, suggested the new pathway should be named 鈥淪tation Trail.鈥�
