EDITORIAL – There’s still a lot of fence mending to do between City and TRU

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

THERE’S STILL A LOT of fence mending to do between Thompson Rivers University and Kamloops City council.

TRU president Brett Fairbairn visited yesterday’s council meeting in the wake of council’s tough-talking insistence that the Summit Drive pedestrian-cyclist overpass must go where the City says it should go.

TRU, on the other hand, wants to do its own study on location.

It was a cordial meet-up, with none of the inflammatory language that characterized the earlier council-only discussion — it’s harder to talk tough when you’re meeting face to face.

Fairbairn, however, outlined TRU’s concerns about the intersection at Summit and McGill, which he labeled as one of the city’s most dangerous. He became emotional as he reminded council of two fatal crashes there involving people from campus.

He pointed out that, in addition to studies of the proposed overpass in 2012 and 2022, a third was done in 2021 that wasn’t mentioned when council was talking about it.

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Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.