Persistence has paid off for Estevan Police Service Chief Del Block.
For the past couple years, Block has been one of the driving forces behind the push to lower speed limits in the city's residential areas from 50 km/h to 40 km/h.
After the first few attempts were quashed by city council, the voters of Estevan had their say in October and voted in favour of lowering the limit, albeit by a 26 vote margin.
Despite the rather tepid mandate, council decided to go along with the will of voters at the Nov. 19 meeting, voting in favour of the reduction 5-1. Councillor Dennis Moore was the lone vote against the move.
Block said he was both pleased and surprised with how quickly council moved on the matter and is happy the reduction will finally happen.
"I totally support council on that decision," Block said. "What it does, I'm hoping, is bring the speed down in the residential areas. Obviously it is an enforcement issue which they have addressed in council and that is correct, it is an enforcement issue."
Block said the biggest issue might be in terms of what is tolerated by the courts. He noted that when the speed limit is 50 km/h, a driver has to be going 60 km/h for any fine to stand up. With moving to 40 km/h, it lowers that tolerance down by 10 km/h which Block feels will have a positive impact.
He added that with more people walking and biking in the community, the safety of residents also became a growing concern for his department.
"We've got more and more pedestrians walking now and in the summer people on bikes. We have a lot of immigrants in town that do not drive; they walk. We have more and more children because of the families that have moved into the city. It's a safety issue."
While making the decision to lower the speed limit, the members of council stressed that the onus is now on the EPS to enforce the new limit. Block concurs with that sentiment and said when the force returns to full staffing numbers, he hopes to place two officers on traffic duty.
"Once I get my numbers back up, there will be two dedicated traffic people and if we have the numbers to sustain that, that is my goal, to have two people in traffic."
