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High speeds on narrow Salmon Arm road spark request for signage

Council to refer request to committee but doesn’t appreciate resident’s comments about RCMP
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Resident requests electronic speed signs for stretch of Lakeshore Road NE in Salmon Arm where some vehicles appear to be going twice the speed limit. (File photo)

A Salmon Arm resident wants electronic speed signs installed on Lakeshore Road NE to curb speeding drivers.

Resident Victor De Groot wrote to city council to make the request for speed signs in the vicinity of 24th Avenue NE to 26th Avenue NE.

“I have personally witnessed vehicles travelling at double the allowable speed limit. The roadway is narrow and the east side has a sidewalk which is heavily used, notably by children attending school. It is very dangerous to have vehicles, including large trucks as this is a truck route, passing pedestrians at high rates of speed.”

He also said he has raised the problem with the RCMP on several occasions but “it is clear that they have no interest in enforcing traffic laws on our city roads and spend all their efforts on the TCH.”

De Groot also objected to Salmon Arm taxpayers paying the cost of RCMP patrols on Shuswap Lake and suggested the resource be redirected to policing costs in Salmon Arm. He also objected to the RCMP wage increase, saying many good city employees also deserve wage increases, and added that he’s sure the increase will not result in increased police services regarding traffic safety.

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City council discussed the letter at its May 24 meeting, voting unanimously to refer the request for speed signs to the city’s traffic safety committee.

Coun. Tim Lavery said the remarks about the RCMP detract from the observations in the letter, and the RCMP had not had a contract since 2017 until it was settled recently. Lavery said the UBCM (Union of BC Municipalities) and the FCM (Federation of Canadian Municipalities) believe the federal government should fund the whole cost of the increase, so that’s an upcoming discussion. But the increase “is not a giveaway to those individual RCMP members in the force who have been waiting for a contract…”

Lavery also said city employees do deserve wage increases too and “they do indeed get them.”

Mayor Alan Harrison said he appreciated the resident bringing forward the speed sign request, but was also not supportive of the comments about the RCMP.

“I know those speed signs have been effective in the spots they’ve been put in, so I appreciate the input, and I do agree with Coun. Lavery, however, that some of the remainder of the email does detract from that request.”



martha.wickett@saobserver.net
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Martha Wickett

About the Author: Martha Wickett

came to Salmon Arm in May of 2004 to work at the Observer. I was looking for a change from the hustle and bustle of the Lower Mainland, where I had spent more than a decade working in community newspapers.
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