Speed limits reduced at Davisburg schools, arena

Speed limits in front of two Davisburg schools and a popular sports arena are being reduced.

The speed limit in front of K-Grade 9 Heritage Heights School on Secondary Highway 552, approximately two kilometres east of the Okotoks overpass, has been 80 km/h since the school opened in 2006.

The limit will change to 60 km/h in about a week.

Joanne Higgins, principal at Heritage Heights, said safety issues along the highway have exacerbated with the opening of the neighbouring Scott Seaman Arena in 2013 and the K-Grade 7 St. Francis of Assisi Academy in September.

“It really came to a head with the addition of the new school,” said Higgins, who has been principal at Heritage for three years. “Now you have two schools and an arena that all use one common entrance. That has been a real concern from a safety point of view.”

Both schools are surrounded by fences, so students do not have immediate access to the highway.

However, the increased traffic coming into the facilities is a concern.

It was a three-pronged effort by the MD of Foothills, Christ the Redeemer Catholic Schools and Foothills School Division to lobby Alberta Transportation Minister Brian Mason, a former Edmonton bus driver, to reduce the speed limit in the popular Davisburg location.

“We started working on this close to six months ago,” said MD of Foothills Mayor Larry Spilak. “Alberta Transportation sent their engineers to study the speed limit in the area and their results showed that 80 km/h was within the legal speed limits, even with the two schools and the arena there.”

Spilak said at that point they went back to the minister to look at a “more pro-active decision rather than having to react to any future incident.”

After failing again, the MD worked with the school boards to convince Alberta Transportation to reconsider.

“Numbers aren’t always right, consideration has to be given to the unknown,” he said. “We continued to notify the deputy ministers over the weeks and fortunately when I talked to one of them last week, he told me he had talked to Mr. Mason and the decision was made to follow our request. We couldn’t be more pleased.”

Mothers of children attending the schools are also pleased.

“I felt 80 km/h was too high, especially with two schools and an arena,” said Jennifer Zaffino, who has children at St. Francis. “Yes, most of the kids are on a bus or are with their parents, but there are still a lot of kids.”

Both schools have taken steps to protect the children. They have staggered the school start and end times to reduce congestion. As well both St. Francis and Heritage Heights have separate lanes for buses and for parents dropping off their children.

Higgins said many children living within walking distance of Heritage Heights are driven by their parents due to concerns their child having to walk along or cross a busy highway to get to school.

Foothills School Division trustee Michael Pollard, who represents the Davisburg area, was relieved to hear of the new speed limit.

He called it “a tragedy averted” when the new limit was announced at the trustees’ public meeting on Oct. 5 in High River.

“There is three times the danger since the beginning (of Heritage Heights School),” Pollard said. “There was a lot of lobbying – working together with Christ the Redeemer and the MD.”

Vince Van Hyfte, CTR Catholic executive director of capital projects and technology, tipped his hat to Spilak for putting the pedal to the metal to get the speed limit reduced.

“A lot of credit goes to Mayor Larry Spilak — I know he called the minister’s office at least once a week for a couple of months,” Van Huyt said. “We wrote a joint letter and fortunately, the speed limit was reduced. It is going to be safer for everyone.”

St. Francis Academy principal Diana Atkinson and Higgins continue to collaborate concerning children and traffic safety.

Events, such as Christmas pageants and plays, will not run on the same date.

As well, the parking lots are shared at the respective schools when needed. In previous years, vehicles have parked along the highway in the dark on a winter night during Christmas concerts at Heritage Heights.

Spilak said it would be around Oct. 22 when the new 60 km/h signs are posted.

“Enforcement is preparing to educate the drivers the first week they (the signs) are out there,” Spilak said.

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