Speak now or hold your peace

Sundre residents have until the end of the month to find a few minutes to respond to a couple of online surveys.

The municipality is seeking input on two topics of significant interest to the community.

In no particular order, there is an investigation into the potential to establish a post-secondary presence in Sundre and what that might resemble, as well as a desire to find ways to improve the trial Main Avenue mini-roundabout redesign. Both surveys can be found by visiting sundre.com/surveys.html.

Jon Allan, economic development officer, said the aforementioned questionnaire is a survey to determine the level of interest the public might have for a post-secondary educational presence in town. The initiative has been explored in collaboration with the Sundre and District Chamber of Commerce, he said.

Chamber president Mike Beukeboom said a long-term goal would be to build a brick and mortar facility or campus right in town. However, the idea for the time being is to start taking baby steps towards that vision, which the chamber president thinks feasible largely courtesy of the varied local economy. Sundre is incredibly lucky to have a range of industries, including oil and gas, agriculture, forestry, health care, and tourism as well as outdoor recreation, he said.

“Not many small communities have all of those things,” he said, adding the question now is what can be added to the municipality to truly tap into and realize the full potential of those industries.

Meanwhile, the Town of Sundre and Alberta Transportation aim to improve Main Avenue by gathering as much input from residents as possible.

“Their feedback — positive or negative — has helped shape this project since the beginning years ago,” said Kirk Kwan, infrastructure engineer with Alberta Transportation.

“It's been very helpful hearing from people.”

Although the new design has been successful in terms of the project's main objectives to reduce the speed of motorists while maintaining a flow of traffic and creating a larger safety buffer between pedestrians and passing vehicles, there remain some concerns. For example, an absence of orange flashing lights for people crossing Main Avenue on foot, he said.

“That's something that we're definitely looking into.”

Kwan said he and his colleagues are happy to answer any questions, and that officials are “hoping for some good feedback from the survey.”

So those who have not already done so are encouraged to find a few moments to respond, or forever hold their peace.

— Ducatel is the Round Up's editor