Following is a letter from the directors of the Rosseau Farmers’ Market. It was sent to all vendors (about 150) and this letter has been forwarded to the mayor and council.
On June 16th at Port Carling, Mr. Frank Lippa, is going to apply to the council of the Township of Muskoka Lakes for permission to open a rock/gravel quarry and pit on Butler Mill Road. This operation would take 200,000 tonnes of material out of the pit annually. If this application is approved by the council of the Township of Muskoka Lakes, it would mean more than 100 heavy gravel trucks a day on Aspdin Road, (one every 4 1/2 minutes). Some of them would be going east to Huntsville, some would be going west to Rosseau.
One major concern is for the safety of vehicles, pedestrian and bicyclers on the roads. Heavy gravel trucks are not able to stop on a dime. School buses that are stopped on the road would not have a chance if a gravel truck came around a corner and was not able to stop. There are already too many heavy trucks using this road on a daily basis, such as logging trucks, Muskoka Containerized Services trucks, Panolam trucks, Hutcheson Sand and and Gravel pit trucks, to name a few that use this road. Aspdin Road is not a provincial road and was not built for such heavy traffic, and extra 100 trucks a day would wreak havoc with the road, with visitors, with residents and with the wild life.
Residents, through their taxes, would have to foot the bill for repairs to the road and would have to live with the dangers of living on a road with such heavy truck traffic. Not acceptable.
Another major concern is that this pit will be operating below the water table. The water and the pollution from that operation will flow into Skeleton Lake and then on to Lakes Rosseau, Muskoka and Joe. This is simply not acceptable.
It is the belief of the directors of the Rosseau Farmers’ Market that this amount of heavy truck traffic will pose a serious risk to pedestrians in the village of Rosseau. The major economic engine in Muskoka is tourism. Rosseau Farmers’ Market draws an average of 3000 visitors on market days. The market is located on highway 141, which is the road that those huge gravel trucks would use. As it is, Rosseau has very heavy traffic congestion on market days. It is our belief that additional heavy truck traffic would result in accidents and deaths. We very strongly urge the Township of Muskoka lakes to deny this application.
The directors of the Rosseau Farmers’ Market.