City Sidewalks a Capital Priority
Prince George, B.C. – When it comes to capital projects for the City of Prince George, the focus in 2014 will be on upgrading sidewalks.
According to the Superintendent of Operations, Bill Gaal, the City should be spending about $1.04 million a year on sidewalk repairs and upgrades, but has been spending, on average, $180 thousand.
That is why Council has shifted $200 thousand dollars out of it’s originally proposed boost to the snow removal levy, to instead be collected under the General Infrastructure fund. Gaal says there are already $6.4 million dollars worth of repairs that need to be made, and $2 million dollars worth are on the “first priority” list.
During it’s discussion on Capital expenditure plans , Council has also agreed to use the gas tax money that hasn’t been used in previous years, to upgrade sidewalks, gravel roads and residential roads. While Councillor Stolz estimated there is about $3 million dollars in unused gas tax funds available, he was reminded that while not yet used, some of those dollars may have already been allocated to future projects. Staff will have to tally just how much money is actually available as some may be linked to projects that are listed as “funded” in future years.
The issue of the state of sidewalks in Prince George was brought home on Monday night, in a presentation to Council during its regular meeting. That presentation clearly demonstrated how those with mobility challenges face extreme difficulty in using the sidewalks in the City. Many of the sideewalks are in such bad shape that a motorized wheelchair or “scooter” can get stuck in ruts, or tip. Others are not cut to street level at intersections making it next to impossible to cross from one side of the street to another.
Comments
The city really needs to figure something out for pedestrian access to the Hart. 1/4 of the city has no access to the bowl area other than to walk down an unlit highway without so much as a shoulder to share the road with traffic.
The forcing of pedestrians onto the Hart highway should be unacceptable to the city of PG, and being that its a provincial highway, it should be a provincial safety responsibility funded by the province, but advocated for by the city.
Councillor Stolz was reminded…. (by whom?) that while not yet used, SOME of those dollars MAY have already been allocated to future projects.
Councillor Stolz states ‘Staff will have to tally just how much money is actually available as some may be linked to projects that are listed as ‘funded’ in future years’.
What he’s saying is that they don’t have a CLUE as to how much money is ‘actually’ available. If they don’t know how much is available, how do they know they do or don’t have enough for anything ?
Do we not have a finance department? A councilor in charge of finance? Any one in city hall who knows just how much money there is, sitting in their cougher’s?
No wonder they keep saying we’re broke, we don’t have any money!!! They have no idea how much is there !!!
Here comes the sidewalk levy to a utility bill near you!
Don’t they have bus service up there Eagleone? Call a cab maybe? Why would anyone walk to town from the Hart?
Perhaps Stoltz can clarity what he is talking about when it comes to the Gas Tax Fund Money.
1. We have already allocated $2 Million from this Fund to go to road rehabilitation next year. Is the $3 Million surplus presently unused money just sitting in an account a City Hall?
2. The Gas Tax Fund money amounts to approx. $2,900,000.00 per year and is based on a per capita basis. This fund as it presently sits will expire in 2015, however the Federal Government plans to make it a permanent funding tool for Municipalities. There might be some changes/additions as to what the money can be used for. (Hopefully not a PAC).
3. The Gas Tax Money can be used for Water and Waste Water. Ie;** Develop or upgrade wastewater and storm water systems to improve water quality and improve aquatic habitat.**
So it begs the question that if the Gas Tax Money can be used for improving our wastewater and storm water systems, why is the City bringing in a Storm Water Utility tax. Could they not use this money??
The Gas Tax Money should be used for roads, and storm water rather than continually taxing us through single line items, and using the Gas Tax money for other pet projects.
We really need an audit at City Hall.
What was happening down there during the Kinsley years? Where did our infrastructure money go from those years? Apparently not into infrastructure. And now this is the same incompetent that is telling us how GOOD Enbridge is going to be for us. That alone should be enough to put ALL of Prince George against it.
Palopu: An audit? How about a broom and dustpan and just clean the whole lot of them out of there!
Oh, by the way, I sincerely hope that city staff and council read all the comments regarding how we feel about them!
Even those short sighted folks who have the weight of a Hart bias on their shoulders have to admit that the Hart is not pedestrian or bicycle friendly.
And who is to say that people would not want to walk to town from the Hart?
Lots of people like to walk, ride a bike, if there were safe dedicated lanes for doing so, I think they would be used. There some who do it now, if it were safer, many more would do so as well.
metalman.
metalman – completely agree with you. I would love to ride my bike to work, but am terrified to because of traffic. I work in the BCR Site – no bike lane on either bridge across the Fraser. Pacific Street is narrow as it is with all the truck traffic, let alone someone on a bike or on foot.
This town is not bike or pedestrian friendly. There are minimal improvements with addition bike lanes in some areas, but unfortunately they’re not in places that I would frequent on a bike. And many people park in them, making them more dangerous when bikes have to swerve out in traffic.
“And who is to say that people would not want to walk to town from the Hart?”
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Most people in PG won’t park on a half empty 4th Avenue to walk to Northern Hardware on a full 3rd Avenue, LOL.
Maybe the people who want to walk to the bowl from the Hart should pay for the sidewalk. I guarantee that’s a smaller group of people than would be PAC users ;)
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