By Greg Nikkel
The voices of city residents spoke loudly on two separate parts of the City of Weyburn’s Traffic Bylaw, and both were listened to by city council on Monday night.
City council had been considering a proposed rewrite of the bylaw which would have made a number of changes, including raising the general speed limit in the city from 40 kilometres an hour to 50, lowering the speed limit in school zones to 30 km/h, and banning all snowmobiles and ATVs from operating within city limits.
In the end, council listened to the many phone calls, emails and posts on social media and gave second reading to maintaining the speed limit, but did support lowering the speed limit in school zones to 30 km/h.
With most of the members of the Souris River Snowmobile Club present filling up council chambers, along with the president of the Saskatchewan Snowmobile Association, council also voted to separate out the proposal regarding snowmobiles and ATVs from the proposed bylaw, and the regulations for snowmobiles will remain unchanged, “for now”.
Chris Brewer of the Saskatchewan Snowmobile Association made an impassioned plea for the city to work with the Souris River club, and said if the trails that are currently in place are allowed to remain in use, it would increase safety by 66 per cent, as use of the trails is regulated.
“This is an opportunity to work with these volunteers to fix this. Look at the size of the crowd in the room. They want to work with you. To take that away would be discouraging,” said Brewer, adding that by banning all access to snowmobiles, “you’re going to turn everybody into a criminal. They’re going to want to access fuel and food.”
Councillors indicated that safety was their primary concern in all of these proposed changes, with Mayor Debra Button making reference to a snowmobile fatality on the Souris River this past winter within the city limits.
“When we had the fatality in the city area, it wasn’t liability that came to mind. We had a man die on the river within the city’s boundaries, and I am absolutely sickened by it,” said the mayor, noting that as a mother with a wide range of ages of children, she is fearful of taking her children to the sledding hill off Confederation Drive, because the sledders end on the river, and she has seen snowmobilers come ripping along the river in the vicinity.
“So we do have irresponsible snowmobilers out there, and that scares me,” said the mayor. “I’m leaning more towards giving access (to snowmobilers) on the east end for gas.”
Councillors Dick Michel and Mel Van Betuw both supported having access on the city’s east side to the Sud City gas station, and asked about designating a trail to access gas and hotels on the northwest corner of the city.
In his comments to council, Brewer noted the southeast corner has a large number of licensed snowmobiles, and said most snowmobilers who would be coming into the city on the designated trails would be tourists visiting the city.
He also suggested that fatalities in the province have dropped significantly, from 18 the year the association was established, in 1989, to an average of two or three a year now.
Brewer also pointed out several communities allow snowmobile access into their municipalities, including Prince Albert, Yorkton, Humboldt, Warman and Martensville.
“You’re going to reverse moving forward” if all access to the city is denied,” he added.
Police Chief Marlo Pritchard explained his suggestion of banning all snowmobiles from the city was made from an enforcement perspective.
“People as young as 12 years of age can legally operate a snowmobile,” he said, asking if the council wanted to maintain access to the city, they should require riders to be at least 16 years of age.
“My kids are riding snowmobiles, but they’re out in the fields, not riding where the traffic is,” added Chief Pritchard.
City clerk Donette Richter said as of Friday, City Hall had received 20 calls or emails on the issue, with several more received on Monday. In the viewpoints received by Friday, 71 per cent opposed raising
the speed limit to 50 km/h, and 77 per cent were in favour of a school zone limit of 30 km/h, with 25 per cent in favour of banning snowmobiles in the city limits. These numbers did not include a letter from the Souris River Snowmobile Club, which has 52 core members, most of whom were present at the council meeting.
Richter noted that on Monday, another 10 residents said they also opposed raising the speed limit, and five of those also supported a reduced school zone speed limit.
On the issue of the city’s speed limits, Coun. Winston Bailey said he supported keeping the general limit at 40 km/h, and reducing the speed in school zones to 30 km/h, and making that effective seven days a week, all year round. No other speed limit currently in effect would be changed, such as the 50 km/h limit on 16th Street.
Coun. Laura Morrissette supported this, noting 90 per cent of the comments she was given cited safety as their top concern.
“I don’t want people going up and down my street at 50 km/h. I know there will be some people who will speed anyway,” she said.
• The city’s Environmental Resources Committee talked about the cleanup campaign coming up, and the possibility of water conservation measures possibly being necessary this year.
The Mayor’s Downtown Cleanup Day will take place on Saturday, May 14, and members of city council and staff will be encouraged to participate, along with downtown businesses.
Meantime, the highway cleanup and hazardous waste day will both be held on Saturday, May 28. Sask. Highways has told the city there are specific areas they would like the city to focus on as some stretches of the highway have been adopted for cleanup. Letters will be sent out to groups and organizations seeking volunteers.
The hazardous waste collection day will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the public works roundhouse, collecting any hazardous waste that cannot be disposed of in the landfill. Also, SARCAN will be open at this time to accept paint and electronics for recyling.
The committee discussed the possibility of water conservation, as the city’s water supply in the Nickle Lake reservoir is one foot below the full level.
City public spaces will have watering restrictions, with parks watered only two to three times a week, other than Jubilee Park. The watering cycle in each public space will be cut from 60 minutes to 45 minutes.
