Huntsville councillors participated in three of their monthly meetings this week: their regular council meeting, the accessibility advisory committee, and general committee. Highlights from each meeting are included below.
General committee, Jan. 26
A childcare centre has been proposed for the Canada Summit Centre in part of the former Motivations Fitness location. Danielle and Andre Satschko are already working to open a childcare centre in the former Fabricland location on Manominee Street, and have identified the Canada Summit Centre as a second location. Although staff have already begun discussions with the couple and no other proposals have been received for the space since the former tenant left in August 2020, councillors said that staff must post a notice for Expressions of Interest for other potential uses for the space. The matter will return at a future meeting. Read more here.
Traffic lights are proposed for the Centre St. North and Hanes Road intersection. Sanford Investments, the developer of adjacent property the Paisley Centre, already plans to install turn lanes in the area of the intersection as part of its project. Town operations staff have subsequently been in discussion with Sanford Investments about traffic lights at the intersection, and recommended that ‘piggybacking’ on the other roadworks by having Sanford Investments also complete other intersection upgrades would be cost effective. As the Town’s engineering vendor of record, Tulloch Engineering, has reviewed the design and cost and deemed it fair and reasonable, councillors agreed that the Town could use a single sourcing process to award the project to Sanford Investments rather than putting the project out for tender. The Town’s portion of the estimated $600,000 project cost is $500,000. The resolution will need to be ratified by council at its next regular meeting.
Club 55 in Town Hall is to close and its services will be amalgamated with those of the Town of Huntsville at the Active Living Centre. Town staff are in discussions with Club 55 executive to make the transition. Read more here.
Plans are still in the works for a ‘hydration station’ for refilling water bottles to be placed in front of the Civic Centre, likely at the start of the pathway to Club 55. The cost of installation, which will be paid by the Town, is still pending, but the $7,642 cost of the unit itself will be paid for by the Downtown Huntsville BIA and The HUB.
Town staff presented floor plan options for interior renovations to Town Hall, which they hope to have completed by the building’s 100th anniversary in 2026. The plans include possible relocation of council chambers to the main floor. Further discussion is to come.
Accessibility advisory committee, Jan. 25
The accessibility advisory committee, which is comprised of both council members and members of the public, is calling on council to extend Huntsville’s transit route to include Chaffey Township Road, Campus Trail, Highview Drive, and Hwy 60, as well as extend its hours of service to 10 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings on a pilot program and consider service on Sundays. Their recommendations will be forwarded to council for consideration.
Regular council, Jan. 24
The Town of Huntsville has received a $500,000 FedNor grant for the Main Street Streetscape project, councillors heard at the Jan. 24 regular council meeting. According to the staff report, “The purpose of the Grant is to provide funding for “above ground” infrastructure and expenses primarily for equipment capital, wayfinding signage and marketing and promotion.” A financial update on the project and details on how the grant funds will be spent is still to come.
The Town of Huntsville has agreed to provide $25,000 to the Madill Church Preservation Society to show support and help the community organization leverage a further $100,000 it is hoping to receive through a Heritage Canada grant. The church is recognized as one of the few remaining square-log buildings in Ontario. Read the story here.
Watch for more on all of these stories on Huntsville Doppler.
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I just have trouble wrapping my mind around a cost of $600,000 to put up one set of stop lights. Gosh, 4 posts, some off the shelf standard light fixtures and control box. Nothing about this job is unique it has all been done so many times before. They do use fancy tapered stainless steel looking posts, where it could be done with just good quality hydro poles and the wiring could be overhead like in many USA states to save the cost of burying it all and the need to dig up the road. The costs just seems so unnecessarily high.
I’d love to hear from someone in the public works with a good reasoned explanation of why these things cost so much.
Maybe an experiment with a traffic circle might be a good idea but traffic circles have their own issues.
The one in Bracbridge is hopelessly too small to work well with trucks and there is always the issue of pedestrian traffic. To handle this one needs to somehow “stop” traffic sequentially around the circle for the pedestrians and I’ve never seen a good way to do this. A grade separation for pedestrians and traffic would solve the issue perfectly but it would make the traffic light cost look small.
Maybe you could take one one of the two lights out at Grandview/Deerhurst out, and use it at this location. The lights at the Canal road location are a bad set up as one can tell by noting that the road is paved with tire rubber most of the time. If you want to spend money, get rid of one intersection at this location and just upgrade the remaining one. In the long run it would be better.
You cold also look at the section from MacDonald’s out to Hwy 60 along King William Street. there are too many stop lights here, most serving no proper cross intersection. You could rationalize this mess, get rid of one set of lights and greatly improve traffic flow here.
The towns traffic flow could use some major surgery.
I agree With Sandy McLennan. A traffic circle is the answer for Centre st and Hanes Rd. It may take a little more space but I’m sure that could be done.
Now they are going to put lights at this intersection. June 28th i was in an accident at this 4 way stop , this is a terrible intersection especially in summer at lunch time and with construction down town . My life has been turned upside down since that day and I think the town is partially to blame . Just simple incompetence of the town to keep us safe. If this was the USA I would be seeing the town of Huntsville in court .
Re: “Traffic lights are proposed for the Centre St. North and Hanes Road intersection” that would be another miss for Huntsville. If there is not a traffic circle put in there it would be silly. There is plenty of space for it. Has council been to Bracebridge or many other towns and seen how these work so well moving traffic and reducing idling? Traffic lights are the old way.
The proposed route change to include Chaffey Township Road would add another large vehicle on a road not designed for such vehicles. The accessibility advisory committee would agree with this statement if they drove this road. Until the Town of Huntsville rebuilds this avenue it should be remained restricted to any truck over 5 tons per axle as signage states.
Oh wait Transports run this road without restrictions or enforcement all the time. Have at her.
More traffic lights, what the heck, the four-way stop has been working great and will continue to work great, why lights? I certainly do not believe there is anywhere near enough traffic volume to warrant the lights, it will just be a frustration to motorists.