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OUR VIEW: The greatest show on Earth. Well...maybe not

Why has it taken until now to test the highway’s width?

Ladieeees and Gentlemen!

Witness the death-defying, daring display of municipal daring-do as a city fire truck attempts this Saturday to circumnavigate a parked vehicle on the Old Island Highway.

Come one, come all.

Sorry, we couldn’t resist because the issue of whether the city made a mistake in the design of the Old Island Highway upgrade has always had a bit of a circus air around it.

Particularly the presence of clowns – but who the clowns are depends on your point of view and we’ll leave it up to you to designate the clowns and the ringmasters. However you see it, the kerfuffle this issue has created has bordered on ringlike as melodrama and hyperbole has flown from both sides. Not unlike many other local issues, to be fair.

City council decided Tuesday to conduct the test at Coun. Andy Adams’ suggestion. After the motion was passed, city communications manager Julie Douglas sent a picture Thursday morning showing the very test being done – stealing a bit of the thunder from Saturday’s demonstration. Perhaps city staff were a little nervous and wanted to be sure the truck would pass the test? Chickens! Houdini is rolling over in his grave.

The thing that puzzles us is why hasn’t the city done this test long before now? Some might say, why didn’t the city test the width of the roadway before the first pavement was laid but maybe nobody had considered this problem until the public raised it? Be that as it may, this furore could have been stifled months ago. The real issue here is one of reassuring homeowners along the stretch of highway in question that fire trucks will be able to reach them.

Now, we just have to remind some drivers to pull over for emergency vehicles.