The city of Grande Prarie is going to look into ways to make the area around St. John Paul II school safer for students. Recently, Grande Prairie and District Catholic Schools asked if there could be more safety measures put in on 132 Avenue.
“Lack of sidewalks for our students to get to school and our staff, that’s the biggest issue. There aren’t sidewalks there, it’s not completed. If you take a drive down there it’s just not safe, says school Board chair Michael Ouellette.
There are currently flashing pedestrian signals on 108 and 132 Avenue. The city says they also have plans to add new lights on the road once it’s twinned, and sidewalks will also be put in when the land is finished being developed between the school and Trader Ridge. That work is expected to be done by summer 2021.
Hoping to put measures into place sooner than that, council members asked city administration to look into costs and options for sidewalks to be put into place by 2020.
Ideally, Ouellette says he would love to see lights and sidewalks in by September 2020 and appreciates the city looking into what can be done sooner than originally planned.
“We always get a good reception from the city, as I said at the end, we can’t put a dollar figure on safety for kids.”
The topic will come back to a future city committee meeting to be discussed further.