BOWDEN - On behalf of himself and a couple of citizens, Coun. Kerry Kelm has raised safety concerns about the intersection of 20th Avenue and 22nd Street in Bowden during a recent town council meeting.
He outlined a scenario in which council waits "till somebody gets killed on that corner and then says, 'oh, well we should have done something about that.'"
The matter had to be postponed to a later council meeting because Kelm raised the issue at the end of a council meeting instead of having it added to the agenda at the beginning of the gathering. Town staff were unsure when -- or if -- it will come back for discussion.
The main area of concern is the south side, across the road from the Anglican Church.
Kelm said thanks to a hedge at the corner and vehicles parked nearby, it's difficult for motorists to see around the corner until it's almost too late.
"In that corner there you don't have any visibility. You've got those high hedges on that corner. You're coming from the south and going toward the school," Kelm said.
"Your nose is already in the middle of the intersection before you can see anything, most of the time.
"Not just myself, but others have just about been hit there. And of course, people coming down that road coming into town aren't just going the speed limit, necessarily," Kelm added.
"I mean, if you can't see, even if you're going the speed limit, it's a pretty dangerous situation."
Kelm said the hedge can't likely be cut back because it's on private property. So he suggested extending the yellow paint so vehicles are required to park further back from the corner.
However, chief administrative officer Jacqui Molyneaux warned yellow paint can only be extended "so far."
Coun. Wayne Milaney had another idea.
He noted in Olds, there are special yellow signs at dangerous corners that warn motorists they're "high-collision" intersections.
"If we can put up some signage and warn the public, I think that's about as far as you can go," Milaney said.
Mayor Robb Stuart suggested directing administrative staff to look at options to make the intersection safer.
"We have a responsibility to make sure that our corners are as safe as we can make them. And because that's been brought up by more than one person in regards to this situation, I think that we need to address it," Kelm said.
