Disabled drivers could soon face the same parking time restrictions as other motorists in Flin Flon.
At their Tuesday, Nov. 17 meeting, city council approved first reading of a motion to place two-hour limits on all handicapped parking spaces on municipal property.
“We have only so many parking spots uptown designated for handicapped [people],” said Coun. Leslie Beck, who introduced the motion. “We want to make sure that it’s fair, that all people coming uptown have the opportunity [to park].”
Coun. Karen MacKinnon added there has been a problem of people utilizing the handicapped spaces “all day long.”
Beck said there is currently no enforcement of time limits on handicapped spaces.
Disabled motorists are also currently allowed to park in any time-regulated spot for up to four hours. Council’s motion lowers that limit to two hours.
“We want to avoid people making requests for more handicapped [spaces],” Beck said. “It’s just better to utilize the ones that we have more efficiently.”
The new limits will become law as early as Dec. 1, when council is expected to approve final reading of the motion.
The limits would apply only to handicapped parking spaces on municipal property, not commercial property.
Upgrades planned
Councillors cited workforce disruptions in explaining why a planned walkway and repairs to a decaying sewer-box sidewalk have yet to commence.
Concerned resident Dennis Hydamaka told council it has been two-and-a-half years since they approved a new walkway for Fifth Avenue between Main Street and Hapnot Street.
“I’d like to know if it’s still on the books or if it’s under the table someplace,” said Hydamaka, who views the walkway as vital to pedestrian safety.
Coun. Bill Hanson said that around the time the walkway was going to proceed, personnel issues prevented the work from going ahead.
He assured Hydamaka that the project remains on the books.
Hydamaka then said it has likely been four-and-a-half years since council okayed an upgrade to the dilapidated sewer-box sidewalk on the first block of Hapnot Street. The project has yet to materialize.
“That dilapidated old box has got a Third World, at best, handrail,” he said, adding that the sidewalk on top of the sewer box is “being used by a number of little children as a playground.”
Hydamaka further said the sewer box “dumps raw sewage onto the boulevard” on an annual basis, with the city declining to clean up the mess.
“That sewage is left to contaminate the area,” he said. “It has never been picked up or done anything with by the city, and the city has known about it since year one.”
Beck said that project also likely got shuffled amid city personnel changes. Hydamaka said that was understandable.
Mayor Cal Huntley told Hydamaka council would investigate both matters and provide him with an update.
Consultations
Council wants to know where Manitoba’s political parties stand on the issue of community consultation.
Huntley has submitted a question on that issue for consideration at next week’s party leaders’ debate being held as part of an Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) conference in Brandon.
Addressing Tuesday’s council meeting, Huntley shared his view that municipal governments “can best say” where provincial investments should be made.
He used the example of the province’s $20-million-plus upgrade of Highway 10 between Flin Flon and Bakers Narrows.
“We’re going to have a wonderful road into the community. I don’t want to downgrade that,” Huntley said. “But if we would have had a choice, we probably would have allocated some of those funds to areas within the community that could have used an upgrade that would have more benefitted the whole population.”
It’s not known whether AMM will select Huntley’s question for the leaders’ debate.
Huntley, Beck, MacKinnon and chief administrative officer Mark Kolt will attend the three-day AMM conference.
They won’t present a formal resolution but do plan on lobbying the province for items such as seniors’ housing, infrastructure funding and permission to implement a base tax on properties.
“But realistically there’s a provincial election that’s going to take place very shortly, so we’re not going to expend a whole bunch of energy until we know which direction that’s going,” Huntley said. “We’ll be doing a lot of listening.”
When city officials attended last year’s AMM conference, Huntley said they shared their concerns with reps from both the governing NDP and the opposition Progressive Conservatives.
Manitoba’s next provincial election is scheduled for April 19, 2016.
Condolences
As his councillors wore sombre expressions, Huntley delivered a statement on the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris last Friday, Nov. 13.
“Something very serious happened on Friday,” he said. “Mark [Kolt] and I were both in the airport when the breaking news took place, and I just want to pass along our condolences as well our concerns with what took place in Paris. It shakes the whole world. It shakes the foundations of our country as well as Paris, and I just want to send from Flin Flon, Manitoba, our condolences and our prayers.
“Hopefully something like that doesn’t happen again, and God forbid it ever happens in our country. But it makes us all very, very nervous and I don’t know what the answer is, but we’ve got to come to a solution at some point in time.”
Added Huntley: “Even in northern Manitoba it has a huge impact, it really does.”
According to media reports, seven coordinated terror attacks in Paris left 129 people dead and another 352 hurt.
Hodgepodge
Coun. Tim Babcock encouraged area residents to utilize Operation Red Nose this holiday season.
The service, spearheaded by the Rotary Club of Flin Flon, offers people free rides home in their own vehicles when they are unfit to go behind the wheel.
Coun. Ken Pawlachuk presented the October animal control officer’s report, which noted that no animals were captured.
Beck announced she would attend this week’s Manitoba Mining and Minerals Convention on behalf of the city.
Held in Winnipeg, the convention is designed to promote and celebrate the province’s mining industry.
