MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - The people have spoken and, at least in this case, the government has listened.
Mountain View County officials have decided against cutting down trees along Twp. Rd. 314 about two kilometres west of Didsbury after hearing complaints from a couple of nearby residents.
Glen Kershaw, who has lived next to the road for his whole 80 years, was happy when told by the county that the trees would not be cut down.
Kershaw and his wife Annette had several meetings with the county prior to the decision.
"They came out and they backed down - they're not taking the trees down," said Kershaw. "The councillor (Duncan Milne) and the head of operations (Ryan Morrison) came and met us and then the reeve (Bruce Beattie) phoned me. So I think it helped. It's really good."
The Kershaws were expecting to attend the Mountain View County council meeting on Jan. 29 to present their case one more time but were visited by Milne and Morrison the day before with the news.
"We had an application in to go to the meeting but then they wanted to come out and meet us here (on Jan. 28)," he said. "They didn't really give me a reason, they just knew I wouldn't take no for an answer."
Milne said that they decided not to remove all the trees.
"There are a couple of approaches along that road that enter fields that we're going to trim out to make it safe to come out of the fields," said Milne. "Just so there's visibility; so you can see. One guy who comes out of those fields with a tractor said he has to be practically in the middle of the road before he can see.
“He just wants to make sure he doesn't hit anyone coming out of the field.
"Possibly at the west end we may need to take just a few out to make it visible to the south. I'll let the operations guys figure it out. They have parameters they go by."
Milne said he talked to some of the other neighbours in the area and pretty much everyone was in favour of keeping the trees.
"They like them," he said. "One guy I talked to said he has no problem getting equipment up and down that road. The other thing we're going to do is that we're going to put up a sign that it could be closed because of snow or whatever.
“If, for example, we get a big blizzard or something that just blows it in solid. We're not going to go in with cats or snowblowers to clear it out."
Milne said when he came out with Morrison to meet with the Kershaws he wanted to explain what the county was doing with the trees and why so they understand why they're looking at it.
"They explained their position and I don't disagree with them," he said. "When you talk to the neighbours one neighbour said their family takes their annual Christmas picture when the frost is just right. It is a pretty location. It's very scenic."
