By Greg Nikkel
City council is considering rewriting City of Weyburn’s Traffic Bylaw which would include an increase of the general speed limit of 40 kilometres an hour to 50.
The recommendation is being made by a committee of council, which also seeks to outlaw all ATVs and snowmobiles from operating within city limits, and to allow the city engineer the authority to change traffic signs, which is currently only authorized by city council.
The city is asking for the public to make comments to council about these proposed changes, with a decision to be made at the next council meeting on Monday, April 25.
While saying they want public input, three councillors prefaced their comments by saying outright they would not be supporting a speed increase from 40 to 50.
Coun. Dick Michel said the only reason he was not voting the recommendations down was to allow them to be open for public input.
“I think it’s important that the public have a say in this,” he said.
“I agree, that’s the only way I would support this,” added Coun. Winston Bailey, going on to relate an incident when at the current speed he had to hit the brakes pretty hard to avoid hitting a little girl who came out onto the street from between vehicles on a bike with training wheels.
Bailey noted that he timed himself from his home in the northeast out to the Tim Horton’s on Highway 39 on the city’s west side, both at the 40-km/h speed and at 50 km/h, and said there was a time difference of less than a minute from going the faster speed.
“I don’t think jeopardizing safety is worth less than a minute to get across the city,” he said.
“I really would like to hear public feedback,” added Coun. Laura Morrissette, who noted she has young children who she wants to see remain safe, pointing out she has seen many motorists blow by her home on the South Hill at more than 50 km/h.
“I would hope people would use common sense. There’s no reason to be driving at 50 km an hour,” she said.
Coun. Bailey added the comment he supports part of the recommendation which would see school zones reduced to 30 km/h. Currently school zones and most streets are the same at 40, with some zones (like 16th Street) at 50, some at 60, 70 or 80 (the latter two on Highway 39).
Coun. Mel Van Betuw said he supports getting public input, but added, “But I do not support 50 km an hour. It’s not worth the extra risk, especially with children on the road.”
He added he does not support the recommendation to ban ATVs and snowmobiles from entering the city limits, as they currently on certain designated trails.
“I think the whole point of going to the public is to get their input. I’m not going to inflict my views on the public beforehand,” commented Coun. Rob Stephanson.
City manager Bob Smith, who was on the committee looking at the Traffic Bylaw along with city clerk Donnette Richter, Police Chief Marlo Pritchard and city engineer Sean Abram, pointed out the reasoning behind asking for some of these changes, such as the speed limit increase, was for consistency in police enforcement, since there are already numerous zones that are over 40 km/h.
This was the same reasoning for recommending that all ATVs and snowmobiles also be banned from within city limits.
“If you allow them in certain areas of the city, the police doesn’t know if they’re 16 or have their licence,” said Smith.
Answering Coun. Bailey’s example about saving less than a minute in travel time across the city, Coun. Stephanson commented, “I don’t recall in any discussion that this was to get anywhere faster. It’s to be more consistent with the rest of the world, so it’s not 10 different rules in 10 different places.”
Richter had noted that in a survey of 10 other cities in Saskatchewan, eight of them have speed limits of 50 km/h, so the recommendation was looking to align Weyburn with most other communities in the province.
She added that all of these communities except one also had a school zone speed limit of 30 km/h.
Inspector Rod Stafford was on hand to represent the Weyburn Police Service’s point of view, explaining that in speed enforcement, there is a principle called the 85th percentile, which denotes that 85 per cent of motorists will drive at the speed they deem safe most of the time, regardless of the posted speed limit.
He shared data from the speed monitoring stations on King Street, going in both directions past the Weyburn Comprehensive School and Queen Elizabeth School.
Just using the data from the last 30 days, there have been 38,000 vehicles driving north at an average speed of 40.77 km/h, and the 85th percentile speed is 41.
Going southbound, there were 40,000 vehicles in the same 30-day period, with an average speed of 44.76 km/h, and an 85th percentile of 48 km/h.
Other minor changes proposed to the bylaw include the addition of medical scooters to allow them in the city with guidelines, increasing the oversized vehicle weight from 2,725 kg to 5,500 kg, and parking with the engine running.
In the Building Department’s report for March, there were eight building permits issued with a total value of $1.8 million.
Of the permits issued, three were for commercial projects, including one for a renovation, one for an accessory building and one new, with a total construction value of $1,029,000.
One permit was issued for a new industrial accessory building worth $400,000, and one was for a porch for a mobile home with a contruction value of $6,000.
Three permits were issued for residential projects, including two renovations and one garage, worth a total of $414,000.
This brings the total year-to-date to nine building permits issued by the city worth a total of $1,864,000.
One year ago, the city had issued nine permits worth $2,400,050.
A change in policy from Health Canada will result in a requirement for costlier water treatment for Weyburn.
Council was told in a report from the water treatment plant supervisor Shabbir Sakrani that Health Canada is requiring the pH level of the city’s drinking water be increased to between 7.0 and 10.5. It is currently at 6.5. The increase will necessitate an increase in the sodium hydroxide dosage, and operating costs will increase by an estimated $30,000 to $50,000 annually as a result.
The water plant staff cleaned out the raw intake pipe, removing years of deposits, and this increased the treatment capacity from 1,800 litres per minute to 3,000 litres per minute, the original design level.
Sakrani also noted the level of the city’s reservoir, Nickle Lake, is down 66 cm from full level, which is down 30 cm from last year just under the 14-year average for this time of year. The city used a total of 138 million litres of water from Nickle Lake during the month of March.
City council awarded tenders for line painting, and for two pieces of heavy equipment.
The line painting for the city was awarded to Line West Ltd., who did the painting last year, for the amount of $82,069, and to Centreline Aviation to do the Weyburn Airport’s line painting for $10,658. The city line painting is to be applied twice this year.
A tender for a wheel excavator was awarded to Bobcat of Regina for $241,972. The tender for a skid steer loader went to Markusson New Holland of Regina for $88,725, including a three-year/3,000 hours warranty.
