MELFORT — The City of Melfort is hiring a traffic engineer to examine the Bemister Avenue East and Scotia Street intersection at the northeast corner of Brunswick Elementary School.
This comes in response to resident Allison Enns requesting a four-way stop at the intersection, which she considers unsafe in its current form.
Mayor Rick Lang said the principal of Brunswick School has also brought concerns to the city over this intersection.
“The city itself has administration engaging the services of traffic engineers to evaluate not just that corner but all four corners around Brunswick,” Lang said. “There is the corner to the south that has two stop signs but it has an open street going east and west. So the stop signs are stopping north, south traffic, but there is nothing to slow down traffic from an east, west direction.”
Lang added the engineer will also be looking at the corner beside the main doors of the school.
If the engineer recommends a four-way stop, Lang said that validates that council should put a four-way stop there.
“Just because if citizens ask us for something they have a valid point, they are concerned about safety – as are we. But we want to make sure we make the right decision.”
Part of the reason administration plans to hire a traffic engineer is to avoid additional costs of having to potentially remove stop signs found to be unnecessary after being installed, which has happened in Melfort’s past.
“We had a stop on Main Street for a long time. Right down Main Street and it made no sense to have it there, we decided in the end. So we installed it there at a cost and then we took it out at the cost and it was a bad decision to begin with. There was no rationale as to why it should be there.”
