Council’s decision to install speed bumps, reduce the speed limit and increase the RCMP presence at an alley behind Drader Crescent rather than close it does not sit well with at least one Rimbey resident.
Brent Bratland, who lives on Drader Crescent, said council’s solution is only a Band-Aid approach to the problem and closing the alley, which he referred to in a letter to council as a short-cut raceway, is the only viable option.
“It’s gotten to the point of being stupid,” said Bratland. “People are using it as a street.”
Bratland said council’s decision to install speed humps in the spring does nothing to alleviate the problem of safety in the winter.
“When they are removed and the ice and snow are hard packed, the issue of safety still remains as a speeding vehicle takes longer to stop under those conditions.”
Bratland noted that seven of the eight people canvassed by Coun. Scott Ellis were in favor of closure.
“Those people were not heard,” he said.
A letter to council from Dr. Christine Ellis (Scott Ellis’s wife) stating she used the alley when she needed to get to the hospital quickly did not convince Bratland the roadway should remain open.
“A physician making her way to the hospital would have to go around the school during certain hours and in a town the size of Rimbey, distance is not the problem. Other doctors live a distance away from the hospital and have to judge their driving and departure times accordingly,” he said in a letter to council.
Bratland is concerned a fatality will occur before the alley is finally closed.
“It is just time,” he said.
Council, at its regular meeting, Dec. 10 agreed to respond to Bratland’s letter, noting they plan to go ahead with their decision.