Ward 6 residents express their concerns on walkways and speeding

He’s petitioned the city to close the walkway between 3065 and 3067 Sherman Dr., which connects the street to Dent Park. He says there’s constant crime along the walkway, trash (including condoms and burnt spoons) and that the area isn’t safe.

Discussion of the Sherman Dr. walkway has been deferred to the next Ward 6 meeting on Dec. 9.

Many others sympathized with Perreault and added their voices to his concerns.

Moderator John Guenther, the director of planning and development for the City of Prince Albert, tried to move on to other topics several times with little success.

“We don’t want anyone dominating the discussion,” he said earlier in the night. “We want to hear your voices and concerns but there has to be mutual respect.”

Discussion eventually turned into arguing.

Perreault and his family left after Perreault’s wife and resident John Fraser exchanged words. Fraser tried to counter her points, leading Perreault’s wife to tell Fraser that he should stop and listen.

Before she and her family left she told attendees “let’s be honest this city isn’t getting better. With the crime. With the drugs…as far as I’m concerned all walkways should be shut down to save everyone a bit of time.”

Much of the conflict was between those who live beside a walkway, and those who don’t.

“It’s a people problem,” one resident said. “If we close the walkways there’s still the sidewalks and the streets. Closing the walkways won’t do anything.”

Several residents got in contact with the city about the closure of the Sherman Dr. walkway.

“People cause these problems, and people move,” Ken Olthuis said in a letter to Guenther. “Closing a pathway will not solve these problems; it would merely move them to another location.”

Greg Volek wrote in that he was “not without empathy for my neighbors, I just do not see that restructuring our neighbourhood will address the concerns stated.”

For those who live beside walkways however, the situation is quickly becoming unbearable.

“At night people are using these walkways as a getaway,” said Blake Edwards, who lives beside a walkway. “They’re dark and dangerous. We’ve had fires lit during the day.”

Edwards said his family didn’t feel safe in their backyard at night with the walkway right beside them, due to people banging on the fence hoping to scare his children. “They’ve gone downhill and it’s very unfortunate for the community.

While walkways dominated most of the discussion, they were not the only hot button issue.

Speeding in the area was often brought up, as it has been in most ward meetings so far.

Based on complaints from the meeting most of the speeding concerns happen on Dunn Dr. and Sherman Dr. Both have blind corners.

“I’ve never seen anyone pulled over in that area,” Edwards said.

Resident Kristian Haberstock said the speeding forced him to act quickly to save his four-year-old son from a speeding driver.

“I had to literally pick up my kid and throw him into the front lawn in the middle of winter. I’m happy it was a big snow bank and he landed in softly. I had to skid out of the way as a car slid up into our driveway because he was going too fast and out of control.

“Our kids can’t see the cars coming so they’ve learned to stop and listen, but there’s gonna be another accident someday.”

Other issues brought up were the lack of signage about where school zones begin and end, as well as the poor state of Lacroix Cres.

The eighth and final neighbourhood planning session is Thursday, Oct. 22, in the City Hall foyer.

ssterritt@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit

by Spencer Sterritt

Ward 6 residents express their concerns on walkways and speeding

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