All I Want for Christmas is a Safer Intersection
A few quick updates to share:
New Westminster School Board Presentation
We presented at the New West School Board on December 17th and requested a motion be put forward by the board - to send a letter to City Council in support of the existing motion* that has been added to the 2025 city budget to improve safety at 2nd and 6th.
*Note that the motion supporting safety improvements at 2nd and 6th was put forward at council on November 27th by Daniel Fontaine (and subsequently supported in a 4 - 2 vote by Paul Minhas, Jaime McEvoy, and Tasha Henderson). The motion directs the city staff (in 2025) to conduct an intersection review and implement subsequent improvements for safety.
School Board Motion Moved, Supported, & Passed!
Unbeknownst to us, immediately following our presentation, Kathleen Carlson & Marc Andres of the School Board Trustees, had a drafted motion prepared that reflected our request - and that motion was unanimously passed by the board. We are very appreciative of their active efforts. Kathleen was actually one of the first city elected officials to support and advocate with us - all the while, she has been undergoing some major medical treatments. No question, she really cares! We wish her a restful holiday break.
More Meetings!
I was interviewed on CKNW radio on Dec 7th - you can have a listen here - https://fb.watch/wE9o_fWT25/
We had a chance to meet with city councillor, Nadine Nakagawa, this week and she voiced being very supportive. She even had some suggestions and ideas on some temporary calming measures that could potentially serve as a short-term safety improvement solution as we await a more permanent change. She noted some of the previous barriers to this area may be a bit outdated and she encouraged us to look further into this. Music to my ears!! I was happy to hear some practical thinking and ideas! High-five, Nadine!
We also met with the Principal at Glenbrooke Middle who was very supportive and encouraging of our efforts!
We've been approached by various parents who have sent letters. I love hearing that. Thank you for taking YOUR time to do so. Working together as a community is the only way forward. Your help makes the difference. I promise, we are getting close!
Send a Letter: If you want to send a letter, but feel kinda overwhelmed or busy, we can help. Here is an easy template you can copy and paste into an email Letter to Council. Email it to: clerks@newwestcity.ca
More Accidents, and Many More Near Misses
For now, we will continue to keep this issue warm and cozy AND on the minds of council until the budget is officially adopted in March 2025. The volume of accidents continues to rise so we cannot rest until we see the actual change (6 accidents in the last 9 weeks, countless near misses!). As I type this, I have heard car horns blaring at each-other, narrowly avoiding accidents, I'm sure.
One last story for the road -
This last week, a car that crashed, came to a final stop obscuring the sidewalk, immediately in front of the elementary school. This happened just before school was dismissed for the day. Had that accident occurred only a bit later, children would have been injured. No question. The image for this update message features our crossing guard, in front of the accident. The sign was actually made the morning before the accident (I didn't expect the accident to be apart of the photo!). You really can't make this stuff up. The police officer on site was thrilled to hear about our petition and said he would love to see this intersection improved. While he hung around the scene, he had to tackle the additional task of talking to drivers blocking the intersection and making bizarre and unsafe choices. It's a weird and wild intersection - it literally causes people to lose access to their pre-frontal (responsible reasoning) cortex and go into... well, unreasonable mode. (insert upside down smily face here). As I walked my daughter home after that, our crossing guard gave me a big hug, a tear in her eye, thanking my family (and Tony's) for our efforts. She had such genuine gratitude for all of us, including each 1200+ of you who have signed. We WILL make her Christmas wish come true!
Seasons greetings to you! Wishing you a SAFE holiday season.