Mary Sjostrom, the Cariboo Regional District Director for Area A, says the CRD Board has given the first three readings to a Streetlighting Service Establishment Bylaw…
“So what we’re asking now, with Board approval, we’re going to the Ministry and the Inspector of Municipalities because we have to determine from them that they’re OK that we move forward to voter accent, because even though the capital cost is covered, the operation per year will be paid for by the property owners.”
Through that process, Sjostrom says if more than 10 percent oppose the project it would then go referendum…
“Certainly it was my goal to not add additional costs on because a referendum is much more expensive. Because of Covid we weren’t able to have a second meeting, but we had about 75 folks come out to a public meeting, and my understanding is that is really good attendance for the CRD, and we heard loud and clear that folks are concerned with safety.”
Sjostrom says they had positive results from a survey that ended on July 2nd…
“We were really, really pleased because we had 148 responses and we mailed out 650, so that’s a pretty good response.  And on average it was just under 80 percent of approval of those individuals that supported the streetlighting moving forward.”
This entire process began following a tragic accident in January of 2019 when a 32-year old pedestrian was struck and killed by a vehicle while crossing Maple Drive near Kube Road.
Sjostrom says the project could go to electoral assent in October, and if approved by the residents, installation of 28 lights could happen early in 2020-2021.