Dear Editor,
I have lived in Sylvan Lake for five years now. When I go north on Highway 781 into town and come over the hill, I am awed by the beauty of the lake and quaintness of the downtown core. Every visitor to Sylvan Lake should enter our town from that direction. Their perception of our community would be SO positive at the onset!
Unfortunately, the powers-that-be have decided that Highway 20 and the industrial park should be our gateway. Our originally quaint downtown area is being slowly decimated by some pretty incredibly stupid decisions, the biggest one being the blockage of traffic at highways 11 and 781.
I live in the Sunny Siesta RV Park at that very corner. I am a senior citizen on a limited income. My 11-year-old car could barely navigate the potholes on Memorial Trail and now, with it under construction, I have even more miles to travel, which means extra gasoline to buy. To top it off, I attended a town hall meeting, regarding this issue and am told that we are paying over $6 million dollars on this road-to-nowhere!
I am told that this roadblock has cut down on the accidents at our corner, and if true, that is a good thing; but, at what cost? Sitting outside at our picnic tables and listening to screeching tires and sirens, makes me think that my not be true.
At the town meeting we were told that lights at this intersection would contravene some sort of law, that it would be too close to the lights at Hwy 20. What makes this area any different than Rocky Mountain House, where the lights are one after the other in close succession? We were told that Sylvan will have to put up another set of lights at Memorial Trail and Hwy. 20, due to the dangers of people exiting Memorial on to the highway. We were told that this could be as high as another million. Why are we spending over $7 million, when one measly set of lights at the intersection of 781 and 11 would have fixed the problem?
Apparently, even our MLA is confused over who is responsible for this debacle -— Sylvan Lake, Dept. of Transport or the people who did the “study”. Whoever it was, stop being so pigheaded, look at the facts, listen to the people who pay your salaries and correct this situation. It takes a big person to admit to a mistake and a big idiot not to!
Gail Grigaliunas,
Sylvan Lake