Province to remove Minto-area bridge, frustrating locals
CBC
Keith Hoyt’s cows used to be the neighbourhood celebrities.
On a nice day, locals and visitors would drive along Grand Lake past his farm in Newcastle Centre, stopping to watch the herd graze the land his father and grandfather tended before him.
But that hasn’t happened since September, when the rickety bridge just up the road was suddenly closed by the province after an inspection deemed it unsafe.
What was once a quick crossing suddenly became a 12-kilometre detour around the bridge, just east of Minto.
Aside from an inconvenience for the farmer with his cows on one side and hay on the other, his social life has taken a hit too, and he even said his cows are depressed.
“No one travels here no more," Hoyt said. "Roger would go by, and Joe, and these people, they'd stop for a second if they had something, but no, nothing now.
“Now, you know, I'm just the old man at the end of the road.”
With the province’s recent decision not to replace the Newcastle Creek #1 bridge, residents on both sides of the bridge miss what used to be a neighbourly community spanning the creek.
Sue and Bruce Carr retired to their sprawling, lakeside property just on the other side of the bridge in 2020 and opened up a small farm, selling produce, fruit and plants.
But now the couple have decided to wind down the farm almost entirely, finding themselves on the wrong side of the closed bridge from most of their customers.
“So we knew right away if it was closed, it was pretty much doomed for us,” she said.
Fresh egg sales over the winter have dropped by half because customers won’t drive the detour around, she said.
About 70 properties are cut off by the bridge closure, with a mix of permanent and seasonal residents. After the province closed the bridge, upgrades were made to Cedar Street — an old mining road — to create a detour, which is now the route connecting these properties to Route 10 and Minto.
Bruce Carr said the graded, dirt road was initially nice but soon deteriorated into a road with some sections of washboard with muddy potholes. He and many of his neighbours fear for the big spring melt.
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