Richer 4-way stop denied by province

A four-way stop at Provincial Road 302 and Dawson Road in Richer has been denied by the province, a decision RM of Ste Anne council is appealing.

The intersection now has stop signs on Provincial Road 302, with the right of way given to Dawson Road. It is less than 200 metres from Richer School with homes on either side requiring kids to cross the street.

“There’s so many close calls there. You’ve got someone sitting at a desk, they have no idea what that intersection is about. I see it… almost every day. There’s kids crossing there, there’s pedestrians crossing there all the time,” said Coun. Patrick Stolwyk during the Oct. 9 council meeting.

There is a sidewalk along both roads leading to the intersection, but no crosswalk for those looking to cross over to the Richer School side or to the grocery store and community club side.

A request to help pay for a crosswalk was sent to Seine River School Division. Trustees voted at their last meeting Oct. 22 to write a letter of support, but will not put forward any funding while they deal with their deficit situation.

The provincial response to the request pointed out there has only been one reported accident at the intersection in the last five years.

Outgoing CAO Mike McLennan said during the meeting that the LUD of Richer asked that the provincial decision be appealed.

“Our argument would be exactly what you’re talking about. The near misses aren’t reported as part of that (provincial) data collection… sure there was only one accident, but that doesn’t reduce the safety issue in the community. It’s not truly reflective of what’s actually happening in that intersection,” said McLennan.

He added that a big reason for the near misses is the assumption by some drivers that the Provincial Road 302 has the right of way, which is not the case.

“There’s more context than just the data of how many accidents have occurred,” said McLennan.