Mapleton council has elected not to hire a crossing guard for the intersection of Wellington Road 17 and King Street North here.
Instead, the township will address safety concerns raised by local residents by re-assigning an existing crossing guard to the village’s main intersection and extending sidewalks on Wellington Road 17, with both measures to be put in place in 2017.
A resolution passed at the Aug. 23 meeting directs township staff to extend the sidewalk on Wellington Road 17 to Wellington Road 7 as part of the construction improvement work the County of Wellington plans to do next year in the village and at that time “re-purpose” the crossing guard to the intersection of Elora and Peel Streets.
A petition with 24 signatures requesting a crossing guard for Wellington Road 17 and King Street North was presented to council by a delegation in June of 2015.
At the July 12 meeting, public works director Jamie Morgan advised council township staff performed a crossing guard warrant survey that indicated a crossing guard is not required as the number of safe traffic gaps is greater than the minimum requirement outlined by the Ontario Traffic Conference School Crossing Guard Guide.
In a written report, Morgan said a number of alternatives were considered, including:
– 1. status quo (do nothing);
– 2. constructing a new sidewalk on King Street from Wellington Road 17 to Simpson Street East at a preliminary estimated cost of $150,000 plus engineering;
– 3. constructing a new sidewalk on Wellington Road 17 from King Street to Wellington Road 7 at a preliminary estimated cost of $25,000;
– 4. same as option 3 but re-purposing the existing crossing guard from the intersection of Rebecca and Elora Street North to the intersection of Elora Street and Peel Street;
– 5. stationing a crossing guard at the location of Wellington Road 17 and King Street and instruct the students to proceed to the controlled intersection at Wellington Roads 17 and 7 at an approximate cost of $5,000 annually.
The report indicates the sidewalk construction recommended in options three and four be looked at as part of the construction upgrades the county plans to do next year on Wellington Road 7 in Alma, provisional on county council budget approval.
The report recommended option four, and stated this option “would provide a full service [crossing] guard to all neighbourhoods of Alma and be most operationally cost effective.”
At the Aug. 23 meeting, Morgan told council the township’s solicitor was consulted for advice regarding township liability.
“Technically the township is not responsible for anyone, students or pedestrian, unless they are crossing at an intersection or crosswalk … other than that it’s kind of use at your own risk,” Morgan explained.
Councillor Lori Woodham asked if a safe gap study could be conducted on the location where the crossing guard currently operates in Alma. Woodham said she can find no records indicating that such a study was ever done.
“I just want to ensure that we are doing things in the right place,” said Woodham.
Morgan responded, “There’s been quite a bit of conversation about this, about where there are crossing guards now, and how did they get there.”
He said the public works department is planning to do further safe gap studies in the fall, including at locations in Drayton, “to see if these locations warrant (crossing guards) and if we’re utilizing them in the right spots.”
“Part of the struggle is what’s been happening is knee-jerk reactions to requests for crossing guards,” said CAO Brad McRoberts, adding staff are now “trying to do more of a technical process.”
Councillor Dennis Craven questioned whether students travelling to Alma Public School would be willing to make the detour to the new crossing guard location if it’s not on their route to school.
“They’re not going to go to the stop lights and then up the street. It’s just not going to happen … they’re going to take the shortest route they can and that’s just human nature for them,” said Craven.
While agreeing kids won’t want “to go that extra distance,” Morgan pointed out, “We’ve done our due diligence by giving them a sidewalk in the right spot and kind of directing them that way.”
Councillor Michael Martin said he supported the staff recommendation as presented.
“For me, the sidewalk is key in all this. I think that’s going to provides a nice, appropriate path for the kids. What they do with that, I think will be up to them,” said Martin.
“I strongly support making a science-based decision here with the stop gap analysis.”
Martin also applauded members of the Alma community for taking a proactive approach to the issue.
“Even if they didn’t get a second crossing guard, they get some credit for the sidewalk extension,” Martin added.
In response to a question from Craven, Morgan said the report to council on future stop gap analysis would also include information on the type of solar cross walk light the county recently installed on Toronto Street in Palmerston in response to a request from a visually-impaired resident.
As he called for a vote on the staff recommendation, Mayor Neil Driscoll suggested the issue involves more than just traffic counts and studies.
“I support the science-based finding of information, but also I have that fear of someday something happening,” said Driscoll.
“Because we can look to all the science in the world and all it takes is one driver not paying attention and we have a loss of life – it could be a child or an adult crossing the street – so we should try and put some common sense into that equation too.”
The recommendation to reassign the crossing guard and extend the sidewalk passed unopposed.
