Westlock County council has nixed a proposal from the Jarvie Community Council to install speed bumps on Range Road 272 (50th Street) in the hamlet.
Council was split 4-3 in denying the request at its June 27 council meeting.
Coun. Albert St. Louis moved to deny the request, saying he wasn’t in favour of speed bumps with Couns. Dennis Primeau and Ron Zadunayski and Mel Kroetsch voting against.
Several councillors were opposed to installing speed bumps, like reeve Don Savage who said the bumps weren’t “grader friendly” and would make it difficult to plow the streets in winter.
“If you take a drive to Clyde and go over those speed bumps, they must have a heck of time to clean those streets properly because they are really sharp and a plow won’t just roll over them,” he said in a follow-up interview.
Although he agreed that the bumps did work in the village because it was on a main street close to the playground, the issue of cleaning streets remained.
Director of infrastructure Al Scott noted at the council meeting that if this project were to go ahead, grader operators would be involved and aware of the locations.
Coun. Ray Marquette also opposed the idea and said he didn’t understand the need when the speed limit in Jarvie was already 30 km/h.
“Pickardville is 50, Busby is 50, they want speed bumps and they’re already at 30?” he said.
Savage pointed out that the signs were put up when Jarvie still had a school and should have been changed when the school closed to align with speeds in other hamlets to which Marquette replied that “north of the store where they want two sets, there is no school there.”
Scott presented a report to council that included a study from the Hawaii Ocean View Estates Road Maintenance Corporation. The study listed the pros of speed bumps — reduces speeds, potential to reduce accident rates, “may reduce some resident complaints” and “less public controversy than some other concepts.”
The cons included diverting traffic to other streets and moving the problem, causing delay to emergency vehicles, noise levels due to rapid deceleration, vehicles driving on the road shoulder to avoid bumps and potential personal injury if crossed at high speeds.
Coun. Bud Massey said when he read the report, his interpretation was the solution was “marginal at best.”
“There’s stronger cons than pros in lots of cases,” he said. “It’s marginal; it’s not a guaranteed success. There seems to be some additional risks when people try to swerve around the strips which could cause even more risk of injury.”
Finding a solution
The agenda package to council also had the survey results from Jarvie residents. There were a total of 44 respondents: 29 where from Jarvie and 15 where from the Jarvie area. Of those surveyed, 35 were concerned with excessive speed, 30 felt unsafe crossing 50th Street, and 34 were in favour of speed bumps.
The speed bumps had a letter of support from the Westlock RCMP Detachment, where Staff Sgt. Dwayne Rawson wrote that speed bumps had resolved speeding issues in the Village of Clyde.
“I will say the Jarvie Community Council is very specific in their request for speed bumps,” Scott noted.
But since that idea was axed, council tossed around alternatives.
Primeau, who voted against denying the request, suggested law enforcement, or rumble strips.
St. Louis supported the second idea, saying it would be easier to maintain.
However, Scott explained that rumble strips would be an additional and unbudgeted cost that he would have to look into if it would “make sense for us to,” on top of the added noise.
Kroetsch mentioned a marked crosswalk but when that question was posed to 41 residents in the survey who replied, 17 were in favour and 24 were against.
Alternatively, speed humps — larger and permanent asphalt bumps in the road — were also looked at.
“I know plows can still get over them but they’re permanent and I’m sure they would cost a lot more than buying a block and putting the block in,” Savage said after the meeting.
He also brought up the possibility of bringing in radar speed signs that show the posted speed limit and the speed of the oncoming vehicle, adding that “I’d like to see us try that first.”
However, Scott told council that option was looked at in another hamlet but the cost to purchase or rent was costly.
He also obtained four quotes for rubber speed bumps. The most cost effective came in at $1,870.85 with tax, plus a $1,000 installation fee. The money would have come out of the hamlet streets portion of the county’s operations budget.
Jarvie disappointed
Michelle Cuthbertson, Jarvie Community Council member, said the group was disappointed the project wasn’t going through.
“One of their biggest concerns was maintenance and with the grader and stuff, which kind of makes me laugh because I’m not really sure when the grader was last through here,” she said.
“That’s their opinion and we’ll just have to look in another direction.”
She said the community council hasn’t discussed the decision yet and won’t until their next meeting in July. At that time, they will have to figure out their next step from there, though they don’t have one at this point.
“We’ve been a very self-sufficient community,” she said. “We took over the school, we’ve made it into a community centre. We haven’t really asked the county for a whole lot when it comes to fixing stuff. Even our roads, they need a really good job and they haven’t fixed them either.”
With no solution in the works, she expected the speeding problem to continue as it is.
“Hopefully nothing serious happens,” she said. “Until something serious happens, then something will be done.”
Ludwig said fundraising would not be an option for the community council because Range Road 272 is a public roadway owned by the county, so the group would still need permission. “We’ll certainly work with the community council if the come up with some different ideas or initiatives that they’d like to see and bring it back to council again if there’s something else they’d like to put on the table,” he said.
