Raymond council approves four-way stop, yield signs

Raymond town Coun. Ron Fromm

Jeremy Appel
Westwind Weekly News

Town of Raymond council voted at its Feb. 6 meeting to approve the installation a new stop sign at the 200 West and Church Avenue intersection, as well as a yield sign on 400 South at 350 East.
“The signs are up already,” said Coun. Ron Fromm in a Feb. 12 interview.
There was previously a yield sign at 200 West and Church Avenue, outside of the Stake Centre, but council voted to convert it to a full stop.
That item came up at the Jan. 16 council meeting and was voted into committee, along with a four-way stop sign proposal for the 100 North and 200 East intersection.
“They’ve been on the books for a month now, so they did go through committee,” said Fromm of the two stop signs approved at the Feb. 6 meeting.
“Some people raised concerns about those intersections, so we looked into them and commissioned a traffic study, as decided that those would be good places for a stop and yield sign.”
The study was done prior to the October election, he added.
The study was intended to look at the routes going back and forth from Lethbridge.
“They decided they would like to have traffic unimpeded largely going north and south,” Fromm said.
“The stop sign that was on the west end of Church Avenue fit in with that traffic survey.”
The town is awaiting feedback from its peace officers regarding the potential four-way stop at 100 North and 200 East, but municipal clerk Abe Tinney says the status quo will likely remain.
“We’ll report back to council if they have a recommendation,” said Tinney.
“It’s most likely that nothing’s going to happen there.”

Beautification committee bylaw passes first reading

The town is awaiting public input after passing the first reading of a bylaw establishing a new beautification committee at the Feb. 6 meeting.
Tinney, who wrote the bylaw, said he deliberately left its definition of ‘beautification’ vague to give council more room to maneuver.
“It’s a new committee, so I think council wants to hash out … the terms of reference,” he said.
“I left it fairly loose for them to define themselves. For me, it would mean recommendations for Main Street, to decide to put different flags (there) on different holidays, for example.
“They may also decide what different flowers to put up in the summer time.”
The committee could also involve itself in environmental protection, such as preserving water and electricity, as other municipalities with a beautification committee have done.
“That’s really their baby to guide and decide what direction they want to take that (in),” said Tinney.