WESTLOCK – The Town of Westlock has installed four ‘Jersey Barriers’ on the south side of the Rotary Spirit Centre (RSC) to curb speeding around the site that’s been a public safety concern “for years.”
Town community services director Gerry Murphy was point blank Dec. 2 saying the issue of speeding around the RSC has become increasing dangerous for the public and necessitated the need for the four, eight-by-three-foot, 3,300-pound concrete barriers to be placed Nov. 25. He said the barriers, which cost $2,500 to install, are an “engineered solution” to a problem that’s simply gotten out of hand.
“In our mind this was the last solution and wasn’t our first choice, but one that needed to happen. This has been an issue for years and the activity can only be deemed as dangerous. I don’t want to call it racing, but it sure seemed like it and a bit of racetrack had developed around the Spirit Centre. We would have been remiss if we wouldn’t have addressed it,” said Murphy.
“We’ve consulted with the fire chief, and he’s consulted with his experts and it was determined the fire department still has access to that side of the building so there’s no issue there.”
While Murphy said they’ve tried to curb the issue by doing public education and increased enforcement, although the town only has one community peace officer who can’t “live at the Spirit Centre in the parking lot.” He also said they contemplated speed bumps, although they bring a different set of challenges when it comes time for snow removal and said some of the “racers” in their lifted pickup trucks might have viewed them as “just more fun.”
“To be honest for the few complaints we’ve had about the barriers, we’ve had more people step up and tell us they’re happy that they’ve been installed,” he added. “It’s been an unsafe situation and parents have told us they’re worried about their children getting hit going in and out of the facility.”
Murphy admits parking is currently at a premium around the site with the Jubilee Arena demo still unfinished, but knows they’ll gain more room soon. He also noted that the parking spots lost down the south lane was never designated as such and were only considered “ad hoc.”
“I understand the difficulty that this provides to some patrons, especially with Jubilee coming down. But hopefully this is just a short-term problem as in the long term we will be increasing our parking,” he added. “And really the parking on the north side also posed a bit of a hazard, too.”
To cut down on some of the congestion, Murphy said they’ve also been opening up the doors on the north side of the facility when they’ve hosted volleyball and other events, although they can’t leave them open all the time as they still want to physically see who comes in and out of the RSC. Murphy also said people will still be able to access the tennis courts and Rotary Trail from access off of 99th Street.
“Having those doors open for events does alleviate the parking and access issues, but we can’t leave it open all the time as we need to know when people are coming in and make it easy for them to come to the front desk,” he noted.
