When attending the community engagement on the Stickle Road/Highway 97 intersection improvement project, I noticed the plan to extend 20th Street right through a wetland and green belt area with a trail and boardwalk in place.
I guess nothing is safe anymore from development. The Ministry of Transportation says it will improve fish habitat by installing clusters of boulders in BX Creek, planting native riparian vegetation along BX Creek, removing invasive species in the cattail wetland area and riparian corridor, installing bird nesting boxes and bat boxes in the riparian corridor and cattail wetland habitat, and rebuilding portions of the existing boardwalk trail.
Now this sounds all nice, but with future development in this area, there won’t be anything left to protect.
There is another intersection coming on 20th Street and connecting to Pleasant Valley Rd. with a housing development there.
And to top this off, 58th Avenue (between Walmart and Rona) at 20th Street is going straight through with a roundabout and bridge right over BX Creek, so another chunk of parkland is going to be lost. There was a big sign at the end of 58th Avenue telling people of a proposal for a retirement centre off Reimer Road and Lefoy Road but nothing was mentioned about the extension of 58th Avenue, a roundabout and new bridge crossing over the creek.
I know a lot of people won’t be too happy at what is happening on their favourite walking trail.
There is already a lot of construction done to the east of the creek, and soon DeLeenheer Road and 20th Street behind Walmart will probably have to be widened as well.
And as far as the Stickle Road situation, install a traffic light. This will calm the traffic coming into town as well as slowing people down going north, too many motorists are well over the speed limit here.
The stoplights seem to work going into Kelowna, and on the Trans-Canada Highway near Kamloops there are a lot traffic lights there too. So what is the difference here?
With a simple solution, we can save $9.5 million. I am sure we can find a better way to spend this money.
Jack VanDyk
Vernon
