After months of campaigning Westlock County for additional signage and a speed-zone transition into Pickardville, the signs are finally up.
Coming off Highway 44 onto Township Road 585, the signs indicate a posted speed of 80 km/h, followed by a 70-km/h transition zone sign, a 70-km/h sign and a 50-km/h transition sign to the hamlet.
“I’m happy it’s finally happened,” said Pickardville Community League president Amy Hill-Eggli.
Last October Hill-Eggli and the community league brought the idea of reducing speeds to the county. The community league met again with county administration in February of this year.
Hill-Eggli noted at that time, speeders were ripping through the hamlet and posing a danger to children crossing the street because the highway had only a 50-km/h transition zone between the 100-km/h sign and the 50-km/h sign.
Though the signs were long awaited, there were hiccups with the installation — the signs were put up in the wrong direction. The 70-km/h sign was posted in the westbound direction towards Pickardville and the 50-km/h sign in the east direction away from the hamlet. The mistake was corrected a day after installation.
Westlock County Div. 2 councillor Albert St. Louis, who also works as a school bus driver, was cautious of the change.
“I was there when it was changed years back,” he said. “It was 80 (km/h) and I was getting lots of complaints about it being 80. So they upped it to 100 and now they’ve reversed it, so (I’m taking) a ‘wait and see’ attitude.”
“I would imagine I’ll get some calls when people start getting ticketed,” he added, though he hoped Westlock County’s peace officer would issue warnings instead of tickets, “for a little while, until they get the message.”
“I go through sometimes and I’m halfway down before I realize, ‘Oh I got to slow down,’” he noted.
As part of the discussions with the county, the community league also suggested a crosswalk at the Pickardville United Church, the place where kids catch the school bus and cross the street to get to the park, but that project is still on the waiting list.
“We were told the crosswalk would probably happen in the spring this year,” she said. “So far they’ve done the speed signs so that would tell me that the crosswalk is next hopefully.”
St. Louis also heard the crosswalk was in the works but indicated he wasn’t sure when it would be painted. However, he was planning on discussing it with county chief administrative officer Leo Ludwig.
“I was as surprised as everybody else when I saw that the speed-limit signs were up because I was just going to go talk to Leo and ask him to see when it was going to be done, and there they were,” he said.
However, he mentioned that speeders weren’t usually passing through Pickardville in the mornings and afternoons when the kids are out and about.
“The crosswalk is good but I don’t believe the speeders are there,” he said. “From what I understand, it’s after supper and later on in the evening.”
