(Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Community safety

Local community asks R.M. council to shed some light on crime

Sep 10, 2020 | 5:00 PM

For years, a dark cloud has hung over Sunshine Road east of Prince Albert, but now property owners are standing up and taking action.

At Thursday’s Rural Municipality (R.M.) of Prince Albert council meeting, Regan Grimwood and Jan Olesko, made a recommendation for council to consider the purchase of five solar powered street lights, designed to handle Canadian winters. The lights would be placed at various locations along the road, and also have the capability to be equipped with cameras, if a property owner so desires.

“I think if we can just look at putting some light down that road, it’ll bring some value to it, it’ll look good, and it’s not just a power pole that SaskPower puts in,” Grimwood said.

Regan Grimwood wants to make his community safer. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

Grimwood, who is also owner of Prince Albert Alarm Systems, explained his family has owned its property over 80 years, and noticed crime getting worse.

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“There’s a lot of drug use, a lot of fast driving, it’s terrible,” he explained. He noted his truck was stolen, as was his neighbour’s.

Div. 2 Councillor Tyler Hazelwood suggested the lights on Sunshine Road could potentailly act as a pilot project for other roads in the R.M. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

Council was informed the cost to install all five lights would be over $8,000. Div. 4 Councilor Richard Wilson asked if the residents would be open to paying a levy. Grimwood replied he personally would have no problem with that.

“It’s worth it in gold. I want my kids to ride their bikes in the driveway.They don’t anymore. We used to go for walks down that road. We can’t anymore so yeah I’d have no problem with that,” he said.

Reeve Eric Schmalz suggested council would meet with Grimwood again in the future to discuss possible funding models. Schmalz also commended both Olesko and Grimwood for showing initiative. He explained both the R.M. council and police often get phone calls from people with various problems, who want something done, but never offer any solutions themselves.

“Regardless of how this plays out, it’s the engagement of citizens like you that make our efforts more cohesive and more cooperative and more effective in the end,” he said. “We appreciate everything you guys are doing.”

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell