The three-way stop that Castor’s town council had placed at the intersection of 55 Ave. and 45 St. is no more.
Coun. Kevin McDougall rescinded the previous motion during the Oct. 24 council meeting after Mayor Richard Elhard and chief administrative officer (CAO) Christopher Robblee reported on a meeting they had with Alberta Transportation the week prior.
“We talked about the stop signs,” said Robblee.
“Their perspective is we put them in illegally. There is a bunch of liability.”
According to Robblee, because the municipality did not go through the proper process of placing the signs, nor received Alberta Transportations approval, if there was an accident at the location the town could be held responsible. Additionally, any tickets issued by the RCMP for running the stop sign would be successfully challenged.
“I rescind my motion,” said McDougall.
“I do think they work. I wanted to draw attention to (the issue of speeding), and I think it worked.”
The Town of Castor did not leave the meeting with Alberta Transportation empty handed, however.
With the concern for speeders on that stretch of road, the province has agreed to increase the speed reduction zone coming into town, place a pole mounted radar-speed sign on 45 Stt. in the area of the complaints for a period of six months and bring in a traffic counting speed sign to record data on traffic in the area for a period yet to be determined.
“That was an olive branch they did hand out,” said Elhard.
According to Robblee, even the stop sign on 55 Ave needs to be reverted back to a yield as any traffic signage changes for even municipally owned roads need to be advertised in the Alberta Gazette for at least 90 days before the change occurs.
The signs had been removed by the end of day on Oct. 27.