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Ward 4 residents shine light on neighbourhood concerns

Sep 16, 2015 | 6:45 AM

Tuesday night’s Ward 4 neighbourhood meeting at the East End Community Club Indoor Arena was a subdued affair that saw city planning and development services director John Guenther field questions from Ward 4 residents and city councillors.

“It’s not about us telling you what to do,” Ward 4 councilman Don Cody emphasized. “It’s about you telling us what you want. That’s what grows a community.”

The top issues were neighbourhood roads, which are considered in rough shape, increased bike paths, and continued care of the parks.

Guenther made a point not to promise any infrastructure changes, but mentioned city council was taking a deep look at road and bike lane conditions.

On the subject of neighbourhood parks Guenther showed a land use map highlighting what the city would like to do in the neighbourhood in the foreseeable future.

The biggest change on the map was turning the industrial area, listed A1 on Ward 4 maps, into a park.

The map also showed that the city wants to change industrial areas along 15th Street East into commercial properties.

East End Community Club manager Don Howland brought his concerns about three recycle bins on the corner of 4th St. and 12th Ave. E to light.

“They are, in my eyes, a constant dumping ground for garbage, dead animals, and oil containers,” he said. “You name it, I’ve seen it [dumped there].”

According to Howland this issue has been going on for the last five years, and has only been getting worse.

“We had a girl just last week who pulled up and dumped probably 15 garbage bags into the recycling bins,” Howland alleged.

Once garbage is deposited into a recycling bin it no longer goes to a recycling facility. Instead it is taken to a garbage dump, which to Howland defeats the purpose of placing the recycling bins there in the first place.

“Other community areas have had them removed. I know they’re used a lot, but they’re a dangerous eyesore,” he concluded.

Concerned citizen Chrissy Halliday brought up the other major issue of the night, which is the disregard for speed limits at the intersection on 15th Ave. E and McIntosh Dr.

“There is a wild amount of speeding,” she said. “I see people easily doing 70.”

In wintertime that corner gets particularly icy, and Halliday made sure to commend the city for making sure that area was quickly sanded and salted, but that does not allay her concerns.

“On any evening I can sit and not see a single cop drive by,” she said. “Yet I can probably see 50 people easily going over the 40 km speed limit.”

Community meetings are part of a larger city initiative to communicate and work with the Prince Albert wards.

This will lead to the creation of a neighbourhood plan that will be drafted at the beginning of 2016  that will then tie into the official community plan currently being drafted, which will lay out the cities objectives and projects for the future.

Six more community planning meetings will occur throughout Sept. and Oct.

A full list of meetings can be found on the cities website

 

ssterritt@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit