BARRHEAD - Town of Barrhead councillors approved a temporary road closure of 49th Street (the service street off the highway) from 57th Avenue south to Blue Heron Bowl during their June 10 meeting.
Council approved the temporary closure to make way for the community's July 1 Canada Day celebrations. The road closure would be from 9 a.m. to midnight.
Municipal coordinator Jodie Lyons said the municipality is working with the Barrhead and District Historical Society, i.e. the museum, and other community organizations to host the celebrations.
Events scheduled include a vendors market, a travel through time display at the museum, an Indigenous display including a Teepee along with games and demonstrations, bouncy castles and other carnival games, and a main entertainment stage with performers such as the Archand Family, the Versatile Choir, Colin Trust, Hum & Strut, Daybreak, Sauvage Plain, Edward Pimm and the Good, the Band, and the Ugly. Members of the Canadian Armed Forces will also take the stage, sharing stories and performing demonstrations.
Festivities begin at 2 p.m. and conclude with a fireworks show put on by the Barrhead Regional Fire Services at 10:45 p.m.
Running in conjunction with the Canada Day celebrations is a twoonie swim at the Barrhead Regional Aquatics Centre from 1 to 5 p.m. and a $2 bowl at Blue Heron Bowl from 2 to 8 p.m.
Coun. Don Smith asked the administration if the enhanced celebrations would become an annual event and, if so, whether the council should make the temporary closure more permanent.
Coun. Ty Assaf asked if it might be better to close the short roadway that runs between the bowling alley and the curling club to the 49th Street service road.
"There will be a lot of events between the bowling alley and the greenspace [the old skatepark property], so we are expecting a lot of pedestrian traffic. Food trucks will also be lined up along the street as well, so it is important to have access to that area cutoff," Lyons said.
Chief administrative officer Collin Steffes said that initially, the organizers had floated the idea of closing just one lane to devote to pedestrian traffic but thought better of it for safety reasons.
"If we become a victim of our success, we could have some bottlenecking and some congestion due to the large access by the spray park [on 54th Avenue], but it will be a safe bottleneck, and it is something we can address next year if we need to," he said.
Steffes said it also helped that the municipality controlled a second entrance point to the festivities in case emergency personnel had to enter the Agrena parking lot area.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
