Carrot Fest should become an all weekend festival, moving the Friday night events to Sunday, to help relieve traffic congestion by closing Holland Street during rush hour, one Bradford West Gwillimbury resident told council.
“It became clear (during the last municipal election) the townspeople are fed up with the amount of traffic they are faced with. You all made promises to address it,” resident Michael Walsh told BWG council.
“The townspeople want you to spend their tax dollars and ease congestion and get rid of traffic jams. They don’t want to save money by orchestrating one.”
During open forum at a council meeting Tuesday evening, Walsh suggested moving the annual Friday and Saturday event to Saturday and Sunday to alleviate traffic and give more time for vendors to display and sell their products.
“There are a lot of positives to this move. Frankly, I can’t think of a single con,” he said.
Council members addressed the issue during a Committee of the Whole meeting, which was held, as usual, partway through the council meeting.
On the committee agenda was a list of road closures for 2019, including Friday, Aug. 16 and Saturday, Aug. 17 for Carrot Fest.
Sections of Holland and Barrie streets and Simcoe Road in downtown BWG would be closed from the Friday at 1 p.m. until Sunday at 3 a.m.
When asked whether the 1 p.m. start could be pushed back, the town’s ​Director of Community Services Terry Foran said he would not recommend it.
“It is a mad rush to get the streets closed and vendors in time for 4 p.m. (with a 1 p.m. start),” he said.
Several councillors said they would be open to investigating moving Carrot Fest to Saturday and Sunday in the future, but they all agreed it keep it as is this year.
“It is our third year. It’s been, in my mind, a success. You’re going to have the same traffic concerns on Sunday,” said Deputy Mayor James Leduc, adding people have time to get prepared for road closures. “I certainly don’t want to intentionally impact anybody on their drive home.”
Local vendors work hard, he added, and they should be able to have Sunday off after Carrot Fest.
“There’s a lot of mom and pop shops. They need that day off,” he said.
Many drivers are also using Marshview Boulevard and Dissette Street more to get around traffic issues on Holland Street, said Mayor Rob Keffer.
“We do have an issue with traffic congestion. It’s not comprised of one day,” said Coun. Peter Ferragine. “This is already something that’s been completely planned out.”
Council is expected to approve the town’s list of 2019 road closures, including the ones for Carrot Fest, at its next meeting March 5.
Coun. Raj Sandhu did not attend the meeting because he is out of the country visiting family.
