Strathmore mother disappointed with outcome at last council meeting
Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter
Disgusted. That is the first word that comes to Christie Meyers’ mind when she thinks of how the council meeting on October 6 went. Meyers had been before Town council on July 21 to plead her case about making Centre St. a safer street. On June 6 a car had hit her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter and she decided something had to be done. She was told in the July 21 meeting Centre St. would be monitored for speeders for a month, and then the issue would be brought back to council to be reviewed.
“50 (km/hr) is not a safe speed for this road, so if somebody’s going 60 or 55 it does seem like it’s way too fast with your lack of visibility and all the parked cars,” said Meyers.
It took until the first meeting of October to make it back into the council chambers, due to an issue with the speed-monitoring machine.
Approximately 90 per cent of the cars monitored were going under the posted 50km speed limit. The most notable day was October 2, when in 24 minutes seven people were speeding through the 800-metre stretch.
“The speeds aren’t incredibly high, but if you’re on that road it’s very congested and tight, and I think we increased traffic by lowering George Freeman to 60,” said Councillor Bob Sobol.
“Driving down that road myself, a comfortable speed is 40 or less,” said Gary Abel, Senior Peace Officer.
Councillors Lois Wegener and Sobol both want to see traffic lowered and maybe see some of the people go back to using George Freeman Trail.
“I think putting stop signs on Centre Street moves you back to the collector road,” said Wegener. “I would support the motion to throw a couple of stop signs on and see what it does.”
Not all of the councillors seemed to agree with the issues regarding Centre St., and a few even stated they didn’t feel the street posed any risk to anyone. Sobol made a motion to see three three-way stops placed on Centre St. Wegener and Mike Lloyd were the only two in favour of the motion.
“I can’t support this motion because there are so many other streets and pretty soon our whole town would be three way stops,” said Councillor Brad Walls.
This didn’t stop the two determined councillors. Wegener placed a secondary motion reducing it to two three-way stops on Centre St. Council decided to ask they advice of the Senior Peace officer and the Chief Administrative Officer, Dwight Stanford.
“Stop signs I believe would in fact slow people down. Is it the ultimate answer? Well without trying. We don’t know that but it is the cheapest way to go in terms of traffic-calming solutions,” said Abel.
“I would suggest that we pick the busiest spot, the most dangerous spot and put three way stop signs there and see what happens. See how it’s working and consider the other two at that time,” said Stanford.
Walls tried to make a friendly amendment of a three month temporary trial period, and that a report be brought to council at the end of the three months. Abel also suggested with the amendment that council lower the speed limit to 40.
“I do think lowering it to 40 would give us more enforcement options,” said Abel.
Wegener didn’t like Walls’ amendment and denied it. Once again the motion was defeated with the same three voting in favour.
“All we’re looking for is people to slow down on that road and take an extra 15 seconds to make it from one end to the other, 15 seconds is all this is going to take,” said Sobol.
He made a final motion for one three-way stop at the Centre St. and North Parkwood Crescent intersection.
“It’s obvious it’s going to keep going until there is a stop sign there,” said Mayor George Lattery. Part of the motion was to allow the signs to be up on a temporary basis and a report to be brought back to council in six months. Walls voted in favour of the final motion made after more debate ensued. Meyers and her family sat through the discussion, slowly growing increasingly disappointed and upset, as each motion was defeated.
“You had four people on that council, three council members and the mayor, that listened to what that Senior Peace Officer said, which should be what should happen on my road, and they totally disregarded everything that was said,” said Meyers.
Meyers said while it is a start, it’s not good enough yet. She plans to address the new council and see what can be done. While she hadn’t been expecting to get three three-way stops, she had been hoping for at least two.