Town eyeing highway crossing

After receiving a public concern regarding the safety of crossing King’s Highway to access Legion Park, the town will look into installing traffic lights at Webster Avenue.
In a report received by council at its regular meeting Monday night, the Operations and Facilities executive committee recommended a traffic/pedestrian engineering study be completed to evaluate whether a traffic control signal is warranted there.
Since the King’s Highway/Webster Avenue intersection is part of the MTO’s “Connecting Link” system, this study is eligible for 90 percent funding under the MTO capital funding program.
As such, the town’s annual five-year capital program submission to the MTO will be amended to include the engineering study, to be completed in 2009.
There used to be a pedestrian crossing at the Legion Park when Alexander Mackenzie School was open, but the town’s traffic safety committee determined at its June 26 meeting that reactivating it was not an option.
Instead, it recommended a four-way controlled intersection at King’s Highway and Webster Avenue.
In addition to helping with pedestrian safety, the committee felt this would increase safety for vehicles going in and out of Tim Hortons, Mohawk, and Subway, as well as increase safety at the blind intersection on the south side of King’s Highway and Webster Avenue.
“There is a fairly long stretch of highway between the lights at Keating Avenue and the lights at Central Avenue, and the speed of the traffic in this stretch seems to be increasing,” transportation superintendent Milt Strachan noted in a written report to council.
“Another stop periodically in this stretch of highway should help in this regard, as well,” he added.
Also at Monday night’s meeting, council:
•received a report on the proposed joint facility for the Fort Frances Public Library and Robert Moore School (this report was outlined in an article in the July 2 edition of the Times);
•received recommendations from the “Blue Box” advisory report (these were outlined in an article in last week’s edition of the Times);
•approved an adjustment to aviation fuel pump prices at the Fort Frances Airport, which resulted in a 43.93 percent mark-up on low lead 100 (LL100) and 41.47 percent on Jet A-1 effective yesterday (July 15);
•awarded tenders for a 3/4 ton extended cab truck, a 3/4 ton crew cab truck, and half-ton truck to MacDonald Motors Ltd. at a total cost of $110,082.34 (all taxes included);
•received the 2008 minutes of settlement for the mill complex;
•approved the purchase of a Sharp MX550N digital document copier for town administration from Wilson’s Business Solutions at a net price of $19,895 (plus taxes);
•agreed to a recommendation of the Administration and Finance executive committee to authorize the donation of proceeds from the annual police auction in the amount of $1,957.56 to the Community Policing Committee to continue to enhance their programs;
•approved travel expenses and per diem claims for Coun. Ken Perry in the amount of $87 (this is for attendance at a municipal meeting regarding bus services held June 24 in Emo);
•approved travel expenses and per diem claims for Coun. Sharon Tibbs in the amount of $87 (this is for attendance at a municipal meeting regarding bus services held June 24 in Emo);
•passed a bylaw to amend Bylaw 06/06 to establish retention periods for documents and records of the Town of Fort Frances;
•passed a bylaw to authorize a lease with Hilding Peterson for certain municipal property at 501 Sixth St. W.;
•passed a bylaw to establish a percentage by which tax decreases are limited in 2008 to properties in the commercial, industrial, and multi-residential property classes (the percentages are 87.35 percent for commercial, 66.46 percent for industrial, and 100 percent for multi-residential);
•passed a bylaw to authorize the execution of a letter of understanding with CUPE to create a new labour position within the Operations and Facilities Division; and
•agreed to invite the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce to appear before council to clarify the reasoning for the former’s request for a meeting between the Chamber and town.