Anyone who has driven down James Street over the past number of years has realized it is deteriorating, and quickly.

Ask the Town of Gravenhurst and they too will tell you the road needs some serious work, and they are trying to do something about it, if only the provincial government would come to the rescue.

For the past couple of years, four applications for funding to reconstruct James Street have been submitted. All four have been denied, including the most recent one.

This has left town councillors and the mayor scratching their heads, wondering why the town continues to be left out.

Mayor John Klinck feels it’s all partisan politics and Gravenhurst’s application was “as good as anyone else’s.” Now he has councillors believing the same.

Klinck continues his tirade about the provincial government, and how it doesn’t like Gravenhurst. Every time the town gets rejected on something that involves the province, he is the first to whine about how it’s simply not fair that Gravenhurst continues to be left out, and how the government is dragging it’s heels. We’ve heard this numerous times, especially with the Muskoka Centre property, Muskoka Wharf and the Highway 11 overpass proposal, just to name a few.

Klinck is quick to play the blame game, but what he perhaps doesn’t realize is that his whining is obviously not making Gravenhurst any friends at Queen’s Park. It’s time to come up with a new strategy. Lobbying seasonal residents to take action is a start in that direction.

What the Town of Gravenhurst also needs to realize is that in the most recent application, a number of projects were approved for Muskoka, and they weren’t roads projects. Maybe that’s why Gravenhurst was denied.

It’s all well and good that the town continues to apply for funding to fix up James Street, which is a large project, but with four strikeouts, it’s time for the town to stop spinning in circles and condemning the provincial government. It’s time to start to set some money aside for the work. Deferring the repairs any longer, waiting for a windfall, is simply not responsible.

Even if there is some truth to Klinck’s claim about partisan politics, while he may not like to play the game with Queen’s Park, he needs to realize he too is a politician and must step up to the plate, rather than sulk on the sidelines.

KF