Slow down is the message concerned residents of Kenaston are trying to get across to speeders in their community, but not all Kenastonians seem to be taking kindly to the means.
Carmen Fowler, administrator of Kenaston, said the village has recently installed three new four-way stops, one on 3rd Street at the first block coming into Kenaston and two on 2nd Street about two blocks apart, to go along with their original four-way stop near Kenaston School in an effort to prevent a possible accident involving a speeding car and children heading to class.
“We had a lot of speeders going downtown, so it’s basically to slow people down because there is a crosswalk where kids go across Main Street (3rd Street),” said Fowler. “There is a hill where you come into town and you go up that hill to get downtown. Kids cross there that go to school, so we wanted to slow people down before they go to that street and possibly hit kids because the kids can’t see the traffic very well there.”
Fowler said 2nd Street comes off Highway 11 just as 3rd Street does and they have been getting complaints from residents about people speeding on it as well, so that is why they decided to erect two four-way stops there too.
“People come off the highway and they keep going,” she said. “They don’t slow down because they can curve coming into town off the highway. This way we’re hoping that it’ll slow them down because they know there is a stop sign there now.”
The decision to put up the stop signs was made by the previous village council headed by former Mayor Dan O’Handley, but current Mayor ML Whittles agrees entirely with the stop signs and said “they are not being removed” despite some opposition from residents unhappy with the new stops.
“We have that hill and (the RCMP) were clocking people at around 80 to 100 kilometres at times going down Main Street,” said Whittles, noting it’s a 40 km an hour limit. “It is a means of safety.”
The new stop signs were recently brought up at a community meeting held Jan. 29 at Kenaston Place by some residents wary of the change, but Fowler said putting up the signs was a council decision in an effort to make the community safer and people unhappy with the change need to recognize that.
To read more please see the Feb. 11 print edition of The Davidson Leader.