Mapleton council has deferred a motion to hire a crossing guard for the intersection of Wellington Road 17 and King Street North here pending further information, including a legal opinion on potential liability issues.
A petition with 24 signatures requesting a crossing guard for the corner was presented to council by a delegation in June of 2015.
The petition notes Wellington Road 17 (Peel Street North) is very busy with not only passenger vehicle traffic, but tractor trailers and farm vehicles. It also notes King Street North is close to the traffic lights at Wellington Roads 17 and 7 and children may have a difficult time discerning if it is safe to cross when vehicles are turning, or when the lights are to change.
At the July 12 meeting, public works director Jamie Morgan advised council township staff performed a crossing guard warrant survey at the location on June 23.
“According to the survey as outlined by the Ontario Traffic Conference School Crossing Guard Guide, a crossing guard is not required as the number of safe gaps is greater than the minimum requirement,” states a staff report presented at last week’s meeting.
A school crossing guard is recommended at a location when there are less than four safe gaps per five minute interval less than 50% of the time, the report explains. At the intersection in Alma, the survey found there were no intervals where there were less than four safe gaps.
Six children and one adult crossed at the location during the survey period, which took place on a school day morning. The same survey was conducted in June 2015 with similar results as the survey this year.
“Given the data collected, no further work is required,” the report states.
Morgan told council staff did not recommend placing a crossing guard at the intersection, and were instead recommending investigation of alternatives such as removing a short piece of sidewalk leading to King Street North and extending the existing sidewalk south to the signalized intersection of Wellington Road 17 and Wellington Road 7.
Morgan advised he had just learned the Wellington County roads department is planning to do some infrastructure work on that area and, although it would be at the township’s cost, “making a sidewalk down to a signalized intersection would make it more beneficial to everyone.”
However, stated Mayor Neil Driscoll, “as much as that would be a good alternative on paper, I don’t see kids coming down to the lights and crossing what is a fairly major road.”
Driscoll also pointed out that given the county’s recent trend toward replacing traffic lights with roundabouts, “I don’t know how much longer that intersection’s going to be lighted.”
Driscoll stated, “for the cost of the crossing guard we can solve a lot of these problems and it doesn’t involve any more infrastructure that we can’t maintain.”
However, he added, “I just struggle with trying to drive kids in a direction that they are not going to go.”
Council passed a resolution directing staff to investigate the option of extending the sidewalk as recommended in the staff report.
However, a motion to hire a crossing guard for the 2016-17 school year was deferred after Morgan expressed concern about hiring a township employee to direct children onto a street with no sidewalks.
“It could potentially be a liability,” he said.
CAO Brad McRoberts estimated a crossing guard would cost the township about $5,000 for the year, which would result in a small budget deficit of about $2,000.
Councillor Lori Woodham suggested deferring the motion for further investigation.
“I’m struggling now, listening to the director of public works, that we are actually condoning children going down a street that has no sidewalk,” she said.
Morgan noted a deferral would allow staff to seek a legal opinion for council before a final decision is made.
“If you defer it, you won’t have to worry about a deficit because it will be Christmas time by the time you get a legal opinion,” commented councillor Dennis Craven.
Morgan said he was confident he could get the required information in time to get a crossing guard in place for the beginning of the school year.
He noted posting a job and hiring an employee was more likely to stretch out the process than obtaining a legal opinion.
Council agreed to defer the resolution.
