New public roads in Neepawa

Details

Published on Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Eoin Devereux
The Neepawa Press

A public hearing was held on Tuesday, Aug. 1, to discuss Neepawa’s development of the former CN property and the creation of new public roads. The proposal would see the establishment of two public roads with direct access to Highway 5 (PTH 5) and the loss of highway access for an existing one (Crocus Drive).

The public roads accessible from PTH 5 will be Mill Street and Rutledge Road. Rutledge will be relocated a few feet further north and run east, up to the point behind Fas Gas. Mill, meanwhile, will be extended in a northwesterly direction and meet up with the access across the highway to Gill Street. As for Crocus Drive, the reason for the closure is related to regulations administered by Manitoba Infrastructure, that allow only two access points to the highway for a subdivision of this size and location. The Town originally wanted four access points, but had their proposal rejected.

After the public hearing concluded, the subdivision application was approved, though mayor Adrian de Groot noted that they’d still like to discuss the issue of Crocus Drive with Manitoba Infrastructure. He remains hopeful they will be able to get MIT to understand the importance of maintaining that road access.

“We’d like to have a conversation with the principle decision makers on this [with Manitoba Infrastructure]. Get them to take a look at the impact the regulations would have. There are certain distances, certain requirements for access points onto a provincial trunk highway, we understand that, but I think they need to understand that we have some existing infrastructure in that area, that already sees truck traffic and on a continuous basis,” noted de Groot. “We’re going to have to have a meeting with [MIT]. A face to face, in which we can all walk the area and they can see themselves the importance maintaining Crocus Drive’s connection to the highway would be.”

School speed zones

Council is taking another look at whether it should reduce speed limits near school zones. Since 2013, municipal governments have had the authority to implement restricted speed requirements around a school. Some communities, such as Winnipeg, Brandon, Winkler and Portage la Prairie, adopted restricted speeds back in 2014, while others, including Neepawa maintained existing regulations.

In Oct. 2016, the Beautiful Plains School Division (BPSD) forwarded a written letter to council requesting further examination of the issue. Council researched the request and drew up a draft bylaw that could see the limits reduced on clearly designated points near Hazel M. Kellington School and Neepawa Area Collegiate Institute (NACI).

The regulation would consist of a speed reduction in the marked zones, to 30 km/h, from 7:30 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, from September to June. Council reviewed that request and gave the document first reading. If it passes second and third reading at the next council meeting on Sept. 5, the bylaw will go into effect immediately, though a slight grace period to get drivers used to the changes could be enacted.

Sister city

Neepawa now officially has a ‘sister city’. Salvatierra, which is located in central Mexico, recently sent a formal letter to Neepawa initiating the request. Council considered the request and passed the resolution by a 4-2 margin.
A delegation from the Mexican community came to Manitoba in Oct. 2016, on a trade mission sponsored by HyLife and their partner, Mercator Inc.

Misc.

Three streets on Neepawa’s northeast end have been resurfaced. Broadway Avenue, Sunset Boulevard and Phoenix Drive were scheduled to be micro sealed on Friday, Aug. 4. Micro sealing is a cost-effective method to help extend the life of pavement. It involves applying a thin sealcoat, water, emulsified asphalt and fine gravel to the pavement surface to prevent it from cracking. The process could extend the lifespan of a road from seven to 10 years.

The search is underway for a new Water Treatment plant operator. Application details are available on the Town website.

Correction: In a previous version of this article, Howard Buffi was cited as the individual who is stepping away from the Water Treatment facility. That was not correct. The Neepawa Press apologizes to Mr. Buffi and the Town of Neepawa for the error. A printed correction will appear in the Wednesday, Aug. 16 edition of the Neepawa Press.