Letter — They paved paradise and still no parking lot

LETTER — A majority of neighbours living directly adjacent to Westmount elementary on Dickenson and Walkem Roads have spent more than the past year trying to respectfully collaborate with school district and city staff to improve the worsening school traffic flow and parking on our dead-end cul de sac. Traffic becomes grid-locked twice a day and worse at school special concerts/events, with tempers flaring, neighbors unable to easily leave or return home during these times, emergency vehicle access compromised, and the potential for a child to be seriously hurt exists as they negotiate the roadways around parked cars and heavy traffic.

Not a new concern, these traffic issues were earlier identified in a City/School District Road Safety Plan in April 2012. Meetings last year between those in charge at the City and the School District, calls to School Trustees and also some City Councillors have been to no avail. Our simple low/no cost neighborhood solutions have been ignored. We are told (1) you think you have it bad – it is just the same at my child’s school; (2) the road is city property and we (the School District) can’t tell the City what to do to improve signage/markings; (3) the road/intersection may not be a real “road” so we (the City) have to ask our legal department and we’ll get back to you (we are still waiting for their answer); (4) no matter what is done people will just ignore the signs anyways; (5) we (the City) haven’t budgeted for white/yellow paint for parking areas this year but we will think about it for next year; (6) we (the City) don’t paint curbs that have not been painted before (thus negating #4); (7) you and the neighbors have to call the police and by-laws to have people ticketed if they park illegally; (8) maybe you need to get the media involved; and (9) the best comment from a top city official was that at least if a child gets hit their injuries won’t be too bad as the car would be travelling slowly as it’s marked as a school zone!

In October 2013 the Daily News reported that the School District would be making a request of $9 million to the Minister of Education, Peter Fassbender, for expansion to Westmount elementary. Highly concerned, we immediately followed up and were told not to worry since expansion plans would be at least eight years away and only IF the Ministry of Education approves it.

It was suggested that we, as a united group of 10 households, present our concerns more formally as a submission that was included in the “Changing Enrolment Patterns & Boundary Reviews Report” completed in February 2014 by (now retired) Superintendent Dr. Terry Sullivan. In our submission we strongly recommended that the parking and traffic issues need to be improved BEFORE the renovations are made to ensure the infrastructure of our already taxed roadway and cul de sac can handle the increased traffic that already exists.

Dr. Sullivan’s final recommendation to the School Board was to monitor Westsyde school enrolment patterns over the next several years.  Well, you can imagine our recent surprise this summer when we noticed that another portable was moved onto the school property. Not only that, the land where improvements to parking were to be considered has been paved with a basketball court instead. Traffic congestion continues.

And now we read in the October 21, 2014 edition of Kamloops This Week that the Kamloops-Thompson school district now has a five-year capital plan request for a $9.5-million project for Westmount elementary to be expanded. No longer eight years away, and no longer $9 million. As a neighborhood we offered to be part of the solution. We were repeatedly turned down. Instead, we continue to be frustrated, hostages at times on our own street, and feeling obviously ignored.

And we don’t want to say “we told you so” if a child is hurt or hit be a car, even if it is “at slow speed.” We have told you repeatedly there is a problem. Now can’t someone fix this before a child is injured?

DONNA BUCKLEY