The people have spoken and the members of Estevan city council were clearly listening.
Due in large part to the public's near unanimous objection, the members of council have decided not to change the speed limit on a section of Fourth Street. The proposal, which would have lowered the speed from 14th Avenue to Souris Avenue to 40 km/h, was officially defeated at the Sept. 7 regular meeting of council.
Initially introduced in July, the intention of the bylaw was make to make the city's downtown core a more pedestrian friendly area. The original bylaw called for the speed limit to be dropped to 30 km/h but was eventually bumped up to 40 km/h.
As it turned out, neither option was appealing to Estevan motorists as a number of them voiced their displeasure to the City. A petition urging council to maintain the status quo was also started and in just over two weeks roughly 1,700 signatures were collected.
In a memo from city clerk Lyndon Stachoski it was noted that the petition, which was started by Estevan resident Trent Knobel, was legally insufficient under the Cities Act as many of the people who signed it were not from Estevan or did not include their civic address. There were also concerns about the somewhat misleading wording of the petition.
However, Stachoski also noted that because so many people signed the petition in such a short period of time, council should take notice of it and not proceed with the second and third readings of the bylaw.
Although he was one of the main proponents of the change, Councillor Chris Istace said it was clear residents were not onside and he would vote to kill the bylaw.
"We need to listen to what the citizens have said," said Istace. "They did make the effort for the city."
Mayor Gary St. Onge also agreed with the city clerk's recommendation.
"Whether it is sufficient or not, we did get the point," he said.
While the bylaw was defeated, Istace took the opportunity to ask residents to exercise more caution when driving in the downtown area. Istace said the mid-block pedestrian crosswalks are still going ahead and noted that a park has also been added in the area which could increase the number of people in the area.
"Please take care," he said. "Police yourselves, pay attention to your surroundings and watch out for one another on Fourth Street."
