WILKIE - Wilkie Councillor David Dornstauder voiced concern over possible changes to speeds on the provincial highways around the town of Wilkie at council’s April 11 meeting, following a request from the Ministry of Highways
“They (Ministry of Highways) did a study back in 2020 in regards to transition zones, so they feel that we need a transition zone on Highway 29 coming into town,” Lana Gerein, the town’s administrator, said.
"So (it would) go from 100 kilometres, then there would be a 200-metre section at 70 km, then it would go down to 50 km, then when you get further into town, it goes down to 40 km.”
Gerein noted that she didn’t believe the council would have an issue with it, though she would suggest lowering the 50 km section to 40 km.
“Why wouldn’t they send somebody out to talk to us about something like this? First off, the letter was ‘wow,’ that’s my comment. Wow,” Councillor Dornstauder began.
Councillor Dornstauder continued voicing concerns, reading and referencing information regarding the transition zones. The information is currently unavailable to the media.
“In my mind, they’re moving them the wrong way.”
At the April 24 council meeting, Councillor Dornstauder reiterated his concerns again after the Ministry of Highways agreed to a May 2 teams meeting to discuss the possible changes with the town.
“I went looking at that, Lana, this is a lot more than they’re looking at here. It is an absolute mess out there,” Dornstuader said, again referencing the information provided to council.
“It’s going to be way more than they’re doing here… [they need] something that makes sense,” Councillor Dornstauder said.
“And then if we want to encourage the use of our truck route, sign it up properly, make it 50 km all the way through, [then] make it 40 km all the way through our main drag.
“...do they have the ultimate authority as to what they’ll let you do?” Dornstauder asked, with Councillor Les Henderson speaking briefly on changes to signage affecting processes.
“There’s going to be about a 40-sign change here,” Dornstauder stressed as council discussed how communities are chosen for changes.
“Well, they started it, so. But they just picked one little piece they wanted to change, and they wanted to make it faster instead of slower.”
The council of the Town of Wilkie decided not to include landowners in the meeting, citing space in the meeting.
