Wawa Municipal Council's considering options to address concerns about snow-clearing trucks on Maple Street.
In their Corporate Planning Committee meeting last night, Infrastructure Services Assistant Director Rebecca Weatherall outlined a few potential options for addressing complaints about the trucks on the residential street, which normally does not allow heavy vehicles, though municipal vehicles are exempt for snow-clearing operations.
Options raised included: a by-law amendment requiring municipal vehicles to drive a maximum of 40 kilometres an hour on such streets, instead of 50; lowering the posted limit there for all vehicles; changing the route the municipal vehicles take to the snow dump to avoid Maple Street; and limiting access to that snow dump, now that the Municipality's acquired that property.
Weatherall highlighted positives and negatives for each option - lowering the posted limit would be expensive while changing the route could increase fuel costs, reduce productivity, and would simply shift the problem to another area - and suggested a hybrid move: limiting the municipal vehicle speed and restricting access to the snow dump, forcing snow-clearing contractors to go elsewhere.
Councillor Mitch Hatfield initially suggested a parallel route but backed off the idea over questions about how many residences would be effected, while Councillor Melanie Pilon stated she believes 50 is too fast for some residential roads, anyway, and Councillor Cathy Cannon stated the issue relates to safety so it's better to change the route to keep the trucks off residential roadways as trucks will speed - Mayor Pat Tait added he was "not a fan" of limiting snow dump use for contractors as it could simply move the problem elsewhere and it'd be better to work with the contractors, further suggesting the use of the School Zone traffic study to help justify speed limiting, though CAO Maury O'Neill noted that study does not include Maple Street and any useful study of the issue would need to take place in the winter.
O'Neill also noted the OPP had watched the area on a couple occasions and caught no speeding, but - per Tait's request - could have the "Speed Spy" used to study traffic, though - again - it would be best to do so in the winter.
Tait emphasized a need to "try something" and "be proactive", with Councillors Pilon and Bill Chiasson both acknowledging that it is a tough decision that will cause inconvenience for someone.
In the end, Council agreed to bring this up in the next meeting - scheduled for June 7th - where they are expected to confirm the lower speed limit for the Municipality's vehicles and order a traffic study for the road during the fall/winter, while considering the other options.
