The principal of St. Anthony’s School JoAnne Akerboom was able to get an audience with Alberta Transportation Minister Ric McIver when he was through town on Saturday.
Akerboom, who is concerned with the safety of St. Anthony’s students crossing North Dinosaur Trail, has made appeals to Town Council and to Drumheller-Stettler MLA, Rick Strankman for support to make some changes. She said Strankman was instrumental in making the meeting happen.
“I talked to the MLA’s office, the Town, the RCMP, and I was in the process of putting a letter together in collaboration with all of them. I went to Rick Strankman and he said he would champion this, move it forward, and was able to arrange the meeting with the Minister,” said Akerboom.
Strankman said with McIver in town, it was a natural to have the minister meet with her.
“’For him to have time to meet with us on a local safety issue for school kids, to me is a priority, and the ministers recognized that,” said Strankman.
Some solutions Akerboom has suggested include making it a school zone, adding flashing warning lights at key times during the day when there is more student traffic, add a pedway over the intersection, lower the speed limit to 50 kmph in the Midland area, or create a traffic circle.
At the meeting with Akerboom were Strankman and Christ the Redeemer trustee Paul Andrew. Akerboom said the minister was accepting of the ideas.
“It was a great meeting,” said Akerboom. “The big thing was that he looked at it and appreciates the concerns we have. It was a great, very collegial meeting, he let everyone speak.”
Minister McIver agreed it was a productive meeting.
“The principal was talking about issues that would make it as safe as possible crossing the highway to get to school,” said McIvor. “We need to think about what we can do to make it better and as a result of the meeting we’re going to look at a number of options that could be appropriate and what could be put in place.”
He expects the department will be in contact with the school within a month.
