After a lengthy discussion, a policy looking into decorative crosswalks in the Town of Essex has been handed back to administration for another look over.
During Monday evening's meeting, council was presented with a report from administration on a policy for decorative crosswalks in the town, which included information on when requests for a crosswalk are made, design and installation requirements, and maintenance and financial obligations.
These crosswalks would be considered non-traditional crosswalks designs when requested by an individual, community group and organization such as the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, Indigenous communities, or other groups.
Many councillors, including deputy mayor Rob Shepley, and councillors such as Joe Garon and Jason Matyi weren't pleased with the wording the policy and the deputy mayor made a motion to keep the current status quo by not having a policy in place.
The motion failed, and administration recommended that they look back into the policy and have the councillors send in their requests and how they would like the policy worded.
Mayor Sherry Bondy says she believes a policy is a good idea, and there are many groups that could be represented.
"A Veteran's crosswalk would be beautiful, and a Pride crosswalk, and an Indigenous crosswalk, and then even a Shop Essex crosswalk down there. I'm not sure. I'm open-minded. I want to be an inclusive community and I would say that during our Strategic Plan we talked about being an inclusive community."
Councillor Katie McGuire-Blais says the importance of the crosswalks gets lost when every block is a new one.
"That concerns me that now we're muraling our roads. And I don't want to see the poppy's here, and then two blocks down, the rainbow, and then two blocks down, the Black Lives Matter, I think then the crosswalks and the importance of a rainbow crosswalk, they get lost."
Councillor Joe Garon says the current policy presented leaves a lot of unanswered questions.
"For me, I just don't think the timing is right for a policy. I do like a lot of the secondary options. I don't see the harm in approaching the Mural Committee or that committee and looking at that while this is still going on. I'm just as well to just continue working on a better policy if we're going to adopt one."
This policy stemmed from a delegation request at a meeting on June 5 for a rainbow crosswalk to be installed in the Town of Essex, where council then passed a motion for administration to create a policy.
Currently, the only surrounding municipalities with policies are the Town of LaSalle and the City of Windsor, who both have a formal policy and application process.
The revised policy is expected to come back to council for approval as soon as possible.