Estevan is not, and likely never will be, a community known for its patience.
This is a relatively young, hard-charging city in which everyone wants to see everything done yesterday.
What little patience there is stored up in the reservoir has clearly been used up this year as residents have grown angry about the condition of our roads. That anger seems to be spilling over into a general dissatisfaction about many things regarding our city. A simple look at the Cheers and Jeers section of the Southeast Trader Express can attest to that.
Fortunately, the rebuild of the northern leg of Highway 47 through Estevan is just around the corner. The tender closed yesterday and the City hopes to see work begin in the very near future. Obviously the same can be said for every single person who drives a vehicle in Estevan.
However, those same drivers who are eager to see the rebuild commence should also be aware that this is not going to be something that happens overnight. In fact, the City estimates the job could take up to six weeks.
During that time it sounds as though one side of Highway 47 will be closed off to allow the work to happen and the other will be one-lane traffic in each direction. It's an absolute certainty that driving in that area is going to be a royal pain in the you-know-what.
That means drivers are going to have to - dare we say it - show some patience as the work is taking place. That means not interfering with the workers, not driving like a maniac and actually co-operating for the greater good of our city.
The reason we bring this point up is there have been some terrible examples of people getting in the way of work being done in our city.
Last week crews were out on Souris Avenue putting down the second lift of asphalt on the road. As workers were preparing the road a semi driver decided to throw the barricades out of the way and drive across Souris to get to his location. Obviously this driver had a destination to get to but that was hardly the way to handle the situation; and not exactly the safest either.
A couple of weeks ago, during an event at Spectra Place, a number of people decided to park on the section of parking lot that had been prepared for paving, barricades be damned. There's no disputing that the Spectra Place parking lot saga has rubbed many the wrong way but the actions of those people only serves to delay the completion of the job. Of course Mother Nature had an even bigger say on that topic but there is really nothing that can be done about that.
The thing is, we, as a community, have little problem sitting back and complaining about the pace of many different projects in Estevan and many of those complaints have merit. But when that work is finally being done, we have people getting in the way and causing issues.
We all want the best for our community and if we are going to see a better Estevan, it is going to take the co-operation of every single one of us. As the saying goes, you are either in or you're in the way.
