Ice jam couldn't stop this man from voting
Last Updated: Monday, January 23, 2006 | 3:54 PM ET
CBC News
Bob Bartlett lives in Riley Brook in the riding of Tobique-Mactaquac. He got stranded last week when warm temperatures and heavy rain caused flooding in the Tobique River.
The water has receded, but it left a three-kilometre ice jam blocking the road.
- FROM JAN. 16, 2006: Ice-filled rivers still rising, EMO says
Bartlett decided to pick his way through the mess of ice and water on the road. He says he couldn't allow democracy to pass him by.
"I said, 'No, that's not the right thing to do. I got to get out of here and go cast my ballot.'
"So a friend of mine, Bill Miller come down to pick me up in his truck, but he come down the other side of the ice jam. I just walked up through the ice jam, half a mile from my home here.
"So I just maneuvered up through the ice and he drove me over to the station and I voted."
He says he got some kidding when he showed up at the polling station. Friends were wondering how he was doing in his, as they put it, ice-olation.
Meanwhile, Department of Transportation officials are scratching their heads, trying to figure out how to rid the road of the ice.
Spokeswoman Tracey Burkhardt says engineers are in Riley Brook looking for ways to carry away the huge blocks of ice. She says a bulldozer may do the job.
"The problem is that we don't want to push these blocks of ice on to private property and cause damage," Burkhardt explained.
"We don't want to push them into our ditches and cause more flooding problems in the spring, or if we have another thaw, so we're trying to determine just what exactly we're going to do with these blocks of ice."
Burkhardt says crews have to make sure the road is safe for heavy equipment before bringing the dozer in.
