After about 18 months of debating, Chinook's Edge School Division (CESD) officials have decided to close the roadway adjacent to Sundre High School.
“The board has passed a motion to close it somewhere around the middle of August,” Allan Tarnoczi, associate superintendent with CESD told the Round Up.
The road is located between the high school and the rodeo grounds and it runs from 2nd Avenue N to the base of Snake Hill.
It is being closed because of safety concerns, according to officials. They have been investigating whether they should close the road since December of 2012.
Two trial closures were conducted in the early months of 2013.
“There has been quite an extensive consultation process,” he said. “That roadway is sitting on Chinook's Edge property and it's basically operating as a public road through a school ground and Chinook's Edge doesn't have the insurance to operate public roadways.”
The buses will be using the designated bus turnaround from now on, and have been for the past few weeks, he said.
In the road's original state, decades ago, it was a utility right-of-way, he said. It started out as a trail and was eventually gravelled, which started to make it look like a roadway and it is now heavily used.
Before the road began being used about 12 years ago, the buses were using the turnaround, he said.
“That roadway was never established as a roadway, it's too narrow as a roadway, it's too close to the school and it's very close to a transformer,” he reported last year.
“It's a private roadway and we want to make sure that we've got adequate safety for the people who are using it and at this point in time we don't think we can widen it out and make it safe enough for the amount of use it's getting.”
A Facebook page was created by Joanna Mckenzie in January of 2013 to express concerns about the possible closure at the time. Within a few hours, there were more than 280 people in the group.
