Summerside residents will wait longer to find out fate of 2 streets
Natalia Goodwin | CBC News | Posted: June 21, 2016 2:32 AM | Last Updated: June 21, 2016
At Monday's meeting, council indefinitely tabled a motion to connect Weeks Drive and Lily Crescent
Residents of two dead end streets in Summerside will have to wait to hear what will happen to their streets.
At the regular council meeting Monday night, council indefinitely tabled a motion to connect Weeks Drive and Lily Crescent.
Council had been presented with two options, either connect the two or create a cul-de-sac at the end of each street.
City staff determined that connecting the streets was the best and cheapest option. The problem came to council's attention when garbage trucks were having trouble turning around this past winter.
Residents of the two streets attended Monday's meeting with a variety of concerns about both of the options on the table. Everything from traffic to concerns about losing the green space between the streets.
Ernie Tracey lives on Lily Crescent and said he doesn't see where the turn around problem is.
"I don't mind them turning around in my driveway. They've been doing it since we bought the house," he said.
But council pointed out, as a long-term solution there would have to be some kind of formal agreement drawn up involving who would pay for damages. Tracey said he's also concerned about changing one of the best features of the street.
"The main reason we bought the house in that location was because of the dead end street, I have two young children," he said.
Residents also brought forward their own solutions. The most popular was the idea to create a driveway at the end of both streets, where the truck drivers could perform a three point turn to get out.
Susan Naylor lives in the area. She said working with the service provider might help.
"If you had a smaller truck who could do some of those dead end streets, sounds like it would also be a part of the solution. "
And finding a good solution is what it's all about now, said Councillor Bruce MacDougall, chair of the technical services committee.
"We're going to go back to the table and look at what options we can do, or can come up with and hopefully we'll have some residents involved, along with city staff sitting down at the table."
And involving the service provider, Island Waste Management, is something city staff are working on.
The issue has been tabled indefinitely until city staff can come back with more information and other solutions.