City expands traffic safety measures

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This article was published 10/05/2023 (952 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Speed limits along roads around Rideau Park will be reduced to 30 kilometres an hour as part of the City of Brandon’s “vision zero” approach to traffic safety this summer.

Coun. Glen Parker (Ward 9) made the announcement at a ward meeting at East End Community Centre on Tuesday evening.

He was joined by several other city councillors, director of parks and recreation services Perry Roque, deputy fire chief Marc Lefebvre and nine members of the public.

In the west end, the speed limit of some roadways will fall to 40 km/h as of June 1, while speed limits in some areas of Princess Avenue and around Rideau Park will be reduced in July, according to Marc Chapin, the city’s acting manager of strategic infrastructure.

Vision zero is a philosophy where jurisdictions design roads and motorways with the aim of having zero traffic fatalities or serious injuries.

Brandon’s attempts to incorporate a vision-zero design kicked off with a pilot project last year where the speed limit on Durum Drive was reduced from 50 km/h to 40 km/h to address nearby residents’ concerns over speeding in the area.

That pilot project was considered successful enough that the city extended it earlier this year and announced its intent to implement similar measures on other problem streets.

The speed reductions on the streets surrounding Rideau Park, Parker said, are a result of speeding he has personally observed in the area in addition to complaints he has received from residents.

Updating residents on crime statistics, Brandon Police Service Chief Wayne Balcaen said criminal activity in Ward 9 has decreased by 14 per cent this year, though he noted some figures in recent years were artificially low because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With residents preparing their yards for summer, Balcaen recommended they make sure their tools and machines are put away and locked up when not supervised to prevent theft.

Balcaen said residents of Ward 9 and other areas had recently submitted complaints about noise coming from the Koch Fertilizer plant in the East End.

He quoted a letter from the plant that was sent to the city’s emergency officials saying the noise and associated exposed flames are a result of annual maintenance and are being worked on. A resolution is expected in the next few days.

Last week and on Monday, Koch Fertilizer Canada’s Facebook page issued apologies for the inconvenience to residents.

On display in the community centre Tuesday were several boards outlining possible layouts and a list of next steps for the proposed outdoor aquatic complex.

One of the layouts was for Rideau Park, just north of the community centre. Parker asked residents what they thought of the idea of building the aquatics centre in their neighbourhood.

He said it would be a big asset for the community, but it would make the area busier and the community centre would lose a part of its yard should the complex be built nearby.

Roque said consultants were asked to provide layouts for pieces of land the city already owns. Another potential location is Sir Winston Churchill Park on the North Hill, off of Braecrest Drive.

Following online surveys and an open house at city hall earlier this year, Roque said the city’s consultants are putting together the information they’ve gathered and will issue a report early this summer.

If the city decides to go forward with the project, it would appear on Brandon’s capital plan sometime between 2028 and 2030.

The meeting also touched on an existing piece of recreation infrastructure: Brandon’s Community Sportsplex. Problems with the Sportsplex’s ice plant forced the rink on-site to be closed in March and the city has started to discuss whether the aging facility needs to be replaced or heavily renovated.

According to Roque, the ice plant has been inspected and repairs are being arranged that would keep the facility going for at least another couple of years. No estimated date for those repairs was given, though Roque said he hoped a tender would be issued shortly.

Last month, the city put out a request for proposals for a consultant to assess what the community would want from a revamped Sportsplex and create a conceptual design for the new vision.

At one point, Roque said the plan was to build a second ice arena on-site at the Sportsplex after community groups identified a lack of available ice space in Brandon, but that need diminished when the J&G Homes Arena was opened just outside Brandon’s western city limits in the rural municipality of Cornwallis in late 2021.

A resident in attendance asked why the city was looking into repairing the Sportsplex and building a new water complex instead of letting private businesses fill those needs in the community.

So far, Roque said, no businesses have expressed interest in building facilities like those. On top of that, he said there are benefits to the kinds of events and amenities that can be held at public versus private facilities.

For instance, he said, the Sportsplex has the only 50-metre pool lane between Winnipeg and Regina.

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