After a white-knuckle drive home, avoiding what is akin to a First World War battlefield (no offence to veterans who hold my deepest respect) that is colloquially known at Notre Dame Avenue, I arrive and am greeted by my weekly Northern Life.
One of the lead articles describes a novel way of dealing with potholes in a potentially more expedient, cost-effective way using the Python 5000. Here is an example of thinking outside the box and trying something different, but as I read along, I find that Mr. Cecutti, the GM of Infrastructure, has had his staff “evaluating” said machine, but that a recommendation for its purchase could not be made.
Fair enough, until I read that one of the reasons for holding back is that the Python 5000 HQ is located in Western Canada (Regina, to be exact), so “..getting technical and other help would be a challenge.”
I then read that Thunder Bay has had one since 2017. They are technically closer to Regina, but in this day and age of communicating in milliseconds or having things purchased and delivered in 24 hours, can this be considered a valid rationale for holding back on the purchase of one?
Has anyone at the city considered striking up a line of communication with their colleagues in Thunder Bay to get the skinny on their machine? If Thunder Bay has used it since 2017 and continues to do so, maybe, just maybe, there is something to it.
I’ve lived in this fine city for more than 26 years and every spring, the same lamentable discussion of our roads ends up greeting us as do our local snowbirds. If nothing is going to change, here’s to another 26 years of the same old, same old. Is that what we really want?
Andrew McDonald
Sudbury