It’s an ideal opportunity to pass the buck, or grab the bull by the horns.
Residents of White Lake sent a delegation to McNab-Braeside Council Tuesday seeking a declaration of the entire village as a community safety zone.
Spokesperson Darrell Carson says he just wants to get the ball rolling on residents’ pressing concerns.
Carson describes the geography involved.
He says the Community Association has been told it has to measure up to various regulations to get what it wants in terms of safety enforcement.
Carson says although lacking hard data, certain facts are apparent just by observation.
The Community Association spokesperson says one proprietor had to take action on his own.
Carson says motorists are going out of their way to avoid having to stop for school busses.
Another point-of-congestion is the community beach, located right across from the fire hall.
Carson says his group has additional safety ideas that could be implemented.
Elected representatives were impressed with Carson’s research, but had some reluctance over attempting to regulate traffic around the fire hall, which out-of-towners appear tempted to use as a parking lot to access the beach.
They did decide to deal with the matter by Council resolution, rather than dump it off to the Township’s Public Safety Committee and cause further delays.
That’s Deputy Mayor Lori Hoddinott, who suggested on aspect of the strategy.
Councillor Scott Brum’s proposal for a “black cat” speed detection device to be positioned at Bellamy Road would yield immediate reference data to address speeding concerns.
This will mean a three-week turnaround for initial action on the residents’ request.
Complicating matters is the County’s ownership of key roadways involved, and an Upper Tier decision originating with its Operations Committee that now requires member municipalities to pay 750 dollars from their own budgets to pay for traffic studies on County roads traversing their territories.
A lack of policing resources for enforcement is an additional complication for this “wild west” scenario that could be solved with photo radar cameras- something as yet untried in a rural setting.
By Rick Stow
