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Cavendish extension debate gets ugly Two city councillors are locking horns over a proposed deal to connect two segments of Cavendish Boulevard. Councillors Marvin Rotrand (Snowdon) and Jeremy Searle (Loyola) are involved in a heated war of words over the road extension, which would see Cavendish become a new link between the Métropolitain and Ville-Marie expressways. >> "It is a crazy, mad project to kill NDG," said Searle, who collected 600 signatures from residents opposed to the proposal. Searle refers to the plan as the "vampire project" and believes it will only bring more traffic and a poorer quality of life to NDG. >> "Searle's petition is misleading and intellectually dishonest," said Rotrand, referring to his colleague as "demagogic," "manipulative" and "looneytunes." Not to be outdone, Rotrand circulated his own petition and amassed 1,300 signatures in support of the road extension. >> Searle says NDG will suffer from redirected highway traffic, increased speed limits (to 50 km/h), more trucks and poorer quality roads. To improve traffic, he suggests eliminating the bottleneck at the Décarie Interchange by connecting Décarie Expressway directly to Highway 15.>> Rotrand maintains the plan would not only relieve the congested Décarie Expressway, but help development in the West End. --Dominique Ritter
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