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Wednesday July 11, 2001 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER A5 F o u r th L in e a t G le n o r c h y B r id g e w ill b e c lo s e d to v e h ic le traffic By Angela Blackburn O A K V IL L E B E A V E R S T A F F S u m m e r E v e n t s The Town o f Oakville is out to permanently close Fourth Line North across Sixteen-M ile Creek at the Glenorchy Bridge. But before the closure can go through, the Town m ust advertise the closure -- and get an okay from Halton. Even though it would close to cars and trucks, the road would stay open to pedestrians and cyclists. A perm anent barricade w ould block access by cars and trucks, but not people. "Staff will erect permanent barricades and con struct permanent turnarounds. They would contain openings for pedestrians and cyclists to use this as a recreational corridor to view the spectacular landscape o f the Sixteen-M ile Creek Valley," said a report to the Planning and Public Works Council from Len M cLeod, Oakville Public Works assis tant director o f engineering and construction. The steep, winding road, that in some spots is really only one lane, is so hazardous that it's tradi tionally closed every w inter anyway. And, last month, Oakville town council extend ed last w inter's temporary closure to the end of August. It's hoped the permanent closure will then take effect. The Sixteen-M ile Creek crossing in question goes through the former Glenorchy community, south o f Low er Base Line. The planned closure has been through an envi ronmental assessment study and public consulta tion -- without much opposition. T he Town has w orked w ith the O akville Executive G olf Course to lessen the closure's impact on golfers. M any G len A bbey and River Oaks golfers take the road to get to the Low er Base Line and Fourth Line club and now must take Sixth Line or Bronte Road to Low er Base Line. The Town has worked to enhance road signs, design brochures for golfers and advertise to let people know o f the change. The Town o f M ilton also feared a closure would put more traffic onto Low er Base Line and w anted to keep the bridge open this summer. However, the Town o f Oakville w asn't pre pared to take the increased liability o f increased traffic from growth and the new Hwy. 407 open ing. The peak traffic on the road is already over w hat Halton Region classifies as "critical." Fourth Line North will eventually be replaced by the James Snow Parkway extension which is a parallel route proposed for 1 km to the east. Milton and Halton Region are now in discus sions to determine which governm ent should build that road, stated M cLeod's report. a t B r o n t e C r e e k ---------·July 14 & 15 Exploring our Environment 12-4 pm ·July 21 Nation Wise Parks Day Woods Canada A 12-4 pm Z*oods ·July 21 & 22 Reptile Mania 12-4 pm "Leaving N o Traces" program describes how to camp in O n tario parks with minimal im pact on th e en v iro n m en t guest speakers, activities and m ore. See th e latest in o u td o o r equipm ent by W oods. Displays, sem inars, and information. Snakes, turtles, lizards with toads and frogs too! G uest speakers, live specimens, seminars, quizzes, crafts and pond study. ·July 21 & 22 Fairy wayside Walk I pm, 3 pm & 5 pm Follow the fairy trail to hiddenglen, make presents for the fairies and see if they leave a surprise! Bronte Creek For m ore inform ation eall ( 9 0 5 ) 3 2 7 "6 9 1 1 or w w w .ontarioparks.eom Algae problem nothing new to Bronte (C o n tin u e d fr o m p a g e A 1 ) the beach, attached itself to driftw ood, and is full o f flies and bugs -- and it stinks. "T he expectation from the people there is that we clean up the shoreline," said W agland. "I dare anybody to stroll along that beach w ithout a gas m ask on," said W ard 1 C ouncillor Kevin Flynn. "I w ent dow n there before this m eeting and I couldn't stand there for m ore than 20 seconds ... and I've got a pretty strong stom ach," said Flynn. The Town cleans up algae at W ater's Edge Park at the foot o f E ast Street, near the Bronte O uter Harbor, but is hesitant to expand its clean up program. The cost o f the as-needed clean-up o f W ater's Edge Park is split betw een the Town and H alton Region and the Town budgets $24,000 annually for its share o f the job. Town public w orks officials, w ho have been plagued with the algae problem for two decades, m aintain that algae has been a grow ing problem in recent years because o f w arm tem peratures and zebra m ussels. A nd this year, algae is problem atic across O akville's w aterfront. For instance. W ater's Edge Park w as cleaned three tim es last year, but has already been cleaned that many tim es this season. Flynn and area residents how ever say that changes the Town m ade to the cobble beach betw een W est Street and T im ber Lane may have actually built an "algae trap." A retaining w all and a change in the shoreline betw een the tw o streets was aim ed at preventing shoreline erosion, enhancing the cobble beach and m aking way for a W aterfront Trail walkway. H ow ever, now it's believed algae blow s onto the beach w ith easterly w inds and is prevented from being cleaned up by southw esterly winds because a new ju t blocks w ind from that direc tion. "The algae is a foot deep in som e places. As a beach, it's totally useless," said Flynn. Town public w orks staff said shoreline w ork requires approvals from the M inistry o f Natural R eso u rces, the D ep artm en t o f F ish eries & O ceans and C onservation H alton -- and is expensive. Town staff recom m ended council not com m it to cleaning up the beach, but councillors asked staff to explore w ays to alleviate the problem , including taking a look at "softening" the ju t w hich appears to be problem atic. Yet W agland said som e sum m ers are worse than others and it appears that the cobble beach in w est-end Bronte may ju st be the start this sea son. "Rem oval o f algae from Town property may not address the issue o f odor because there are still lots o f private properties along the lakefront," cautioned W agland. E L C O M E A G O N r V S in c e ltd . 1930 EXECUTIVE BUSINESS WELCOME W elcoming new executives, businesses, and professionals to Oakville. We offer a com plim entary corporate gift and information package courtesy of the Oakville business community. If you are a new executive, or if your com pany is new to Oakville, please call W endy Budisavljevic at (905) 466-5186 for your com plim entary corporate inform ation package. We also offer an exciting business sponsorship programm e. www.welcomewagon.ca Health Canada criticized (C o n tin u e d fr o m p a g e A 1 ) defendants liable to pay aggravated, exemplary, and punitive dam ages." "This is not about money," said Young. "It could be any amount, or no amount." That said, Young explained that Janssen-Ortho and its parent company made billions of dollars off Cisapride so a large class action is the only tool of any consequence for the plaintiffs. "Johnson & Johnson is so big they have more money than some countries," said Young. "An individual action to them is like the average person paying a library fine." The lawsuit states that Health Canada had a duty to the plain tiffs to, among other things, ensure proper testing of the drug before authorizing distribution and to ensure that doctors and phar macies were properly instructed about dosage limits and con traindications of use. Likewise, the lawsuit says that the corporate defendants had a duty to perform and complete testing on the drug before distribu tion, to ensure that adequate adverse reaction reports were obtained and that these reports were properly communicated con sumers and doctors. The lawsuit ends its long list of allegations against the corpo rate defendants by saying they had a duty to "not market a drug which was unreasonably hazardous." Lawyers for Janssen-Ortho postulated during a recent coro ner's inquest that excessive vomiting from bulimia could have caused an electrolyte imbalance - particularly in potassium - which could have triggered Vanessa Young's cardiac arrhythmia and heart attack. The coroner's jury ruled that the cause was "acute hypoxic/ischemic encephalopathy due to cardiac arrhythmia fol lowed by cardiac arrest resulting from the effects of Bulimia Nervosa in conjunction with Cisapride toxicity and possibly an unknown co-factor such as congenital cardiac defect." The four-member panel also offered 59 comprehensive recom mendations designed to prevent similar deaths from occurring in the future. Although hundreds of individuals are known to have been tak ing Cisapride when they died or suffered cardiac abnormalities, Young fears that many others - like seniors and infants - were also involved. "I suspect there are hundreds of people who died (as a result of the drug) and their families don't know it," said Young. More than 80 lawsuits in the United States are being rolled into one class action. Although the Canadian suit will remain separate from its American counterpart. Young family lawyer Gary Will - a member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) - plans to be part of the co-ordination of evidence and depositions between the two countries. Will also plans to take part in the July 17 meeting in Montreal of ATLA's Propulsid Working Group. Will was particularly critical during the inquest of Health Canada, which he maintained would not have allowed the drug to stay on the market if it knew the true extent of the risks. He also said quicker action by Janssen-Ortho and Health Canada would have seen proper warnings issued sooner than they were. Will said during the inquest that 300 prescriptions for Cisapride were written every day during the month it took for Health Canada and Janssen-Ortho to negotiate wording of the latest warning. The drug was pulled from Canadian and American shelves shortly after Vanessa Young's death. "Canadians think they're safe and they're not and that with regard to drug safety, we would be far safer without Health Canada," said Young, who believes that - while a federal inquiry is outside the purview of the class action - it is vital nonetheless. Such an investigation. Young continued, would delve into the relationship between Janssen-Ortho and Health Canada and help answer why Cisapride was allowed on the market in the first place and why it stayed in pharmacies as long as it did. "The system is corrupt." said Young, who also wants to see established an arm's length body which investigates adverse drug reactions and oversees drug safety in Canada. Q U E E N S L E IG H B E D , D R E S S E R , M IR R O R , 2 N IG H T S T A N D S R e g . $ 1 0 ,7 6 5 S A LE $5 , 6 9 9 A R M 0 IR E ALSO AVAILABLE. 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