The Town of Amherstburg and County of Essex are taking extra measures to deal with speeding complaints and safety concerns around St. Joseph Catholic Church and St. Joseph Catholic Elementary School.
Speedsters were put on notice in December after Amherstburg council called for a report on establishing a community safety zone on Concession 3 North by River Canard.
The speed limit on Concession 3 North is 80 km/h, but then drops to 50 km/h in the 800m leading up to County Road 8.
Concerns were also raised by St. Joseph Parish regarding safety concerns on nearby County Road 8 and South Riverview Street.
Concerns from the church included school buses using the church parking lot to turning around, requesting a 20 km/h reduction in the 50 km/h speed limit on County Road 8 near the church, and listed conflicts between traffic and parishioners crossing the road.
Councillor Diane Pouget said the area was difficult to navigate.
"Right in front of the church, there's actually an intersection, and then you have people coming out of the parking lot, why couldn't they decrease it to 40 km/h, because it's a school safety zone," Pouget said.
Councillor Peter Courtney was in support of adding safety measures.
"This has always been a crazy corner, the bridge, it's kind of all open, you got parking lots on both sides, you got the school on the corner, you got the church, so this is good that there's something happening here for safety for all involved," Courtney said.
Councillor Donald McArthur said the town would ask the the county to conduct its own traffic study for possible future speed reductions but that the town would not wait to take action.
"We have a problem, we can solve it tonight," McArthur said. "We make it 40 km/h and that will be a beachhead that the county can then say if we want to be uniform, we can make it 40 km/h. Why you would stand on a heel and defend that it should be 50 km/h in front of a school and a church, at an intersection like that is beyond me."
At Monday night's meeting, Amherstburg council passed a number of measures:
- Reducing the speed limit to 40 km/h from 50 km/h on South Riverview Street between Beneteau Drive and North Townline Road.
- Installing community safety zone signs on Concession 3 North adjacent to school property and on South Riverview approximately 150 metres west of County Road 8.
- Installing additional 50 km/h signs on Concession 3 North
- Making improvements to the sidewalk by installing accessible ramps and tactile plates at the proposed crossing installed by the County of Essex.
The County of Essex previously agreed to complete the following items:
- Install a 50 km/h sign and Community Safety Zone signs on County Road 8 just south of County Road 3 to improve information to the drivers on the posted speed limit.
- Install flexible bollards along the church parking lot and County Road 8 to prevent the access from the intersection of County Road 8 and South Riverview.
- Reconfigure the stop bar at South Riverview and County Road 8 to allow for installation of a painted crosswalk at the intersection. The painted crosswalk should eliminate the mid-block pedestrian crossing and make the pedestrians more visible at the intersection.