{"id":26962,"date":"2020-07-09T22:12:37","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T02:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26962"},"modified":"2020-07-09T22:12:42","modified_gmt":"2020-07-10T02:12:42","slug":"aurora-heights-area-sidewalks-move-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-heights-area-sidewalks-move-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora Heights area sidewalks move forward"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New sidewalks intended to help increase pedestrian safety\naround Aurora Heights Public School have received the formal thumbs-up from\nCouncil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After months of debate, local lawmakers formally approved\na sidewalk for Kitimat Crescent, one which will be installed directly adjacent\nto the curb on the north and west side of the street. The planned location of\nthe sidewalk, according to Town Staff, is to \u201cpreserve as much driveway capacity\nas possible\u201d in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maintaining driveway capacity was one of the many\nsticking points residents opposed to the proposal brought to Council\u2019s\nattention over the past year. Their concerns sparked no shortage of alternative\nideas to increase pedestrian safety, including a proposal to temporarily turn Kitimat\ninto a one-way street until layby parking for the nearby school could be\ncompleted under a wider raft of safety measures. But safety ultimately won the\nday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sidewalk project is budgeted at $192,700, an increase\nfrom the previous $100,000 originally earmarked at budget-time, but more than\n$50,000 of this is for \u201coptional extra work\u201d including the removal of catch\nbasins and infrastructure repairs, if deemed necessary over the course of the construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For crossing guard Suzanne Lytle, the cost to get the job\ndone was a small price to pay to increase children\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEach September, I look forward to seeing my little\nfriends after summer break. I also look forward to making new friends. Each\nyear, I find at least half of the children who are driven to school and park on\nKitimat are in kindergarten. Some are as young as three when they start,\u201d said\nMs. Lytle in a written delegation to Council. \u201cParents and carers drive the\nchildren for all different reasons. Many of them are working parents, primary\nparents, parents who have children in multiple schools, new moms with little\nones and grandparents. They are all good people; they are just trying to go\nabout their day and get their kids to and from school safely. They deserve a\nsafe route to school, they deserve to be off the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFamilies parking along Kitimat is not exclusive to just\nthe morning and afternoon rush. Parents pick up and drop off at all different\ntimes throughout the day due to appointments and whatever. Some children go\nhome each day for lunch. There are parent-teacher interviews, award assemblies,\nart nights, holiday celebrations, Welcome to Kindergarten, graduation and\nsports teams coming from other schools who park on Kitimat. There are many\nlittle feet travelling along Kitimat throughout the day, not just during the\nrush. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love my job and I love these kids. It would haunt me\nforever if a child is ever hurt on my watch. I can\u2019t even imagine what it would\ndo to the motorist. Children are compulsive, easily distracted, unpredictable\nand completely unaware of the dangers that are around them. It only takes a\nsecond to change a life forever. Restricting parking along the side of Kitimat\nor making Kitimat a one-way street is not going to eliminate all the dangers of\nhaving children walking on the road with cars travelling past them. The Police\nmay be able to help control and enforce the laws of the road, bylaw may be able\nto control where people park, parents can try and control their impulsive\nchildren, but no one can control Mother Nature. Accidents happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council ultimately agreed, approving the project\u2019s budget\nunanimously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know I have received quite a bit of communication over\nthe last several weeks and have had a few people accuse me of trying to make\nresidents happy and not doing what is right, which is a little disappointing,\nbut I can take it. I have been a politician for a while now,\u201d said Councillor\nSandra Humfryes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I have in my heart is the good of the community. I do believe the safety issues are still going to be there. The sidewalk may help, but it is not going to alleviate what we see there day to day. I do look forward to getting this moving forward, hopefully addressing the residents\u2019 driveways that are going to be compromised by this, but we will work through it, I am sure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New sidewalks intended to help increase pedestrian safety around Aurora Heights Public School have received the formal thumbs-up from Council. After months of debate, local lawmakers formally approved a sidewalk for Kitimat Crescent, one which will be installed directly adjacent to the curb on the north and west side of the street. The planned location […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-70S","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-26 02:20:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}