Letter: Where was photo radar on first day of school?

First day of school and where does one find our photo radar set up? Not at the school zones where it was crazy with vehicles pulling in, pulling out, etc. Not at any of the multiple residential sites that have large volumes of children that would be riding their bikes to school, walking to school, crossing busy streets, etc.. No, they were set up at the UFA Card Lock parking lot, just across the road from LUBEX [Jiffy Lube] or officially known as Zone M402.

We drove by at 8:10 a.m. in the morning and there they were sitting, and we assume taking pictures of north-bound [traffic]. We drove back at 8:30 and yes the photo radar vehicle was still sitting there. Causes one to wonder hmm – safety versus revenue. Which is it?

Out of curiosity – we drove around all the schools to see WHO were protecting the safety of our children and we were so happy to see the Community Peace Officer cruising around Morinville Public School and an RCMP parked by the Notre Dame School.

Thank you to the CPOs and RCMP for the boots on the ground.

Thank you,
Linda Lyons, and Cliff Haryett

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7 Comments

  1. Maybe it’s time for council to get their heads out of their a**es and put a limit of how much time has to be spent in residential areas against commercial areas. 60-75% of time in residential especially during school hours? Just my opinion

  2. This whole nonsense has gone – ONCE AGAIN – from the ridiculous to the sublime and Bob is quite correct – time to pull your heads out of your a**es.

    Councillor Boutestein – you’re a member of the Traffic and Safety Committee (or whatever the proper label is these days) and all we ever hear from you are apologies for asking questions of Administration. This is your second crack at being a member of Council, so I would expect you to be just a tad more forceful in getting answers out of an increasingly obstinate Administration…

    Mayor Holmes – I have stated on more than one occasion that you have demonstrated absolutely NO leadership qualities and, in public at least, you have shown no reason to change that opinion. If you want to get Administration to change its ways you need not waste good tax dollars to hire yet another so-called “expert” to help sort out Council’s relationship with the CAO, all you have to do is sit down and amend the CAO by-law so that it reflects what Council REALLY expects from Administration. Not enough of a leader to organize that? Your own resignation might not be a bad idea.

    And for all you parents out there – you’d better start getting actively involved in this whole issue, BEFORE one of your kids is injured – or dies – at the hands of a driver speeding through a school zone or playground area. As competent as they are, neither the RCMP nor our CPOs have the resources to monitor it all.

    Finally, I regret to inform you that hammering about this on the ‘rant ‘n rave’ social media page doesn’t work. You need to send letters to Council and start attending Council meetings.

    Anything to add Mr. Gosselin?

    Have a nice day!

    James O’Brien

    • Mr. O’Brien I’m sorry you feel this way (pun intended) as there is not reason to be rude or ‘forceful’ as you indicated to get answers.
      It appears that we are still divided about where, when and how photo enforcement should be operating in our community. One day there is support to have them in school zones and the next day there isn’t. One day they are labelled as a ‘cash cow’ and the next day they aren’t-please tell me how we can make this an acceptable part of our community everyday and for everyone. I am more than happy to hear what you have to say and take your questions and/or ideas back to council.
      So glad I could take my head out of my “you know what” long enough to write this.
      Have a great day!
      Nicole Boutestein

  3. Maybe its just time that they admit to the driving tax in this town, the aim of revenue and that it really has nothing to do with safety AT ALL. Thank you Town Of Morinville for showing your true colors.

  4. It makes sense to me. The photo radar vehicle doesn’t have the same visibility as the Peace Officers and RCMP who were present at the schools. They will have more of an impact on the speeding in school areas and create top of mind awareness for drivers more effectively than the photo radar on the first day of school. They were out in the afternoon as well at Primeau with radar.
    Having the RCMP and the photo radar at the school at the same time would be poor distribution of manpower and just because the police are at the schools shouldn’t be a free pass to speed near the industrial park where speeding is problematic.
    I would vote for the visible presence at the beginning of the school year every time over photo radar to remind the public that school zones are now in effect.

  5. As one who has followed this issue since the days leading up to the day when the people of this comunity voted to keep Photo Radar, I can say out a doubt say that it is not council who have their heads where the sun dosen’t shine. There have been many time when have set up times for us, the comunity to come out and tell them first hand what we want, as one of the 10 people who showed up to these meetings, I some how wonder where everyone else was. Linda and Cliff have put in a great deal of effort into bringing the issues involved with Photo Radar to our attention and to this I applaud them. There are a lot of us who agree that Photo enforcement needs to spend more time in high risk pedestrian areas and less time in areas of no pedesrian risk. After all, Cardif road has had zero accidents with no pedestrian incidents, the infamous pump house the same, Morinville public school one child hit by a passing motorist that I know of, and as Linda so valiently pointed out to us, on the first day of school after the summer break, at 8 in the morning, where was our valued Photo Enforcement.

  6. You can write all the comments you want in this paper, send letters to the Council and even attend the meetings, but Council and the Mayor do not give a crap about the people. They have their own agenda and it ain’t us. I have attended town meetings and voiced my opinions to be merely laughed at. It took the government of Alberta to step in and put a stop to the Councils crazy ideas, (they didn’t think it was so funny, thank goodness). Now here we are again, right back where we started, Same old same old!

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