The town will return a stop sign to piece of the Fort Frances riverfront near the former mill.
The sign would be located to regulate southbound Victoria Avenue traffic heading east on Front Street.
According to a request to town council, it has become apparent that, with new tenants at the Portage Building, the intersection of Victoria Avenue and Front Street would benefit from the reinstallation of the stop sign.
A sign was once in this place when the mill was in operation.
“There are a lot of people now gaining access to the former mill site at that intersection,” according to the request.
Travis Rob, the town’s operations and facilities manager, said there was a stop sign at Victoria Avenue and Front Street but it had been removed a number of years ago about when the mill shut down and traffic decreased.
“Upon a brief search, I have not been able to confirm that he Traffic Control Bylaw was ever amended to remove it as a stop-controlled intersection,” Rob said.
“Should that be the case, it could be as easy as standing up a new stop sign.”
The worst case scenario would entail installing a new Stop sign after council amends the bylaw to allow it.
“So I’m hearing you say that we can just put the Stop sign back?” Mayor Andrew Hallikas said.
Councillor John McTaggart asked if left turns were prohibited to motorists leaving the former mill property and headed east.
“Not to my knowledge,” Rob said.
Coun. Steven Maki wanted to know how many vehicles used the intersection in a 24-hour period, if it was of a volume that would necessitate a stop sign.
Rob said that information wasn’t readily available. But the sign request stems from incidents in which westbound vehicles on Front Street heading into the former mill property have nearly collided with motorists chugging south on Victoria Avenue.
“Because nobody has any sort of control for those two movements,” Rob said.
Coun. Bill Morrison suggested town staff erect a yield sign at the intersection.
The issue is westbound traffic on Front Street that would normally turn right onto Victoria. The problem arises when those drivers try to go straight into the mill storage yard but there are southbound cars making a left turn east, Maki said.
“They’ve got the thru-way and the guy cutting across the go into the yard is where the accident is going to happen,” he said.
“So having a Yield coming off the wood yard onto Front Street is a moot point because that’s not the issue.”
“Maybe the volume isn’t there now but, if they’re developing this site, this property, maybe the traffic will increase later on so we have to be wary of the future and what future needs are,” Coun. Michael Behan said.
And that’s why he isn’t opposed to a stop sign at that location, he said.
Hallikas said consideration of possible future needs is one of the reasons a stop sign was requested.
