The possibility of adding streetlights to the Gook Road area, from Highway 97 to Dragon Estates, is being looked at.
Mary Sjostrom, the Cariboo Regional District Director for Area A, says it would be along the lines of the 23 LED streetlights that were installed on Maple Drive last year.
“We went to BC Hydro and they’ve identified 19 poles, we asked for 23, but they’ve identified 19 that will service the LED lights. The catchment area for this one is slightly smaller than Maple Drive, but it’s 373 homes.”
There were 616 in the Maple Drive project.
Sjostrom says she was approached by some local residents to look into getting streetlights for the Gook Road area.
She says it would be for the same reasons as Maple Drive.
“We have the same situation on Gook Road which is a busy thoroughfare, one school comes off of that. We’re just trying to improve the safety. A lot of the arterial roads off of Highway 97 are busy, and we just want to make sure we can keep people safe.”
Sjostrom says they will get into the dollars and cents at a later date.
“What we’re doing now is, this is sort of the first reach out, and then we will do a mailer out to the homes and follow up with an open house finding out if there is support. Ultimately it’s up to the residents because it will be an additional line item as street lighting that they’ll have to be paying for, and maybe people don’t want to pay for it, maybe they’re not interested in lighting.”
The open house is expected to be held some time in June.
Sjostrom says they would be working with the same partners as the Maple Drive project.
“We have ICBC, which we have a grant in which they’re very supportive from the safety perspective, as well as the Ministry of Transportation. They’re looking at additional mechanisms to identify crosswalks, particularly the ones at the school. We have two on Maple Drive and one on Gook, so that’ll be sort of working on conjunction with this. They’ll be working with ICBC too.”
Sjostrom says the Cariboo Regional District’s Board of Directors has approved a budget for this project for advertising and public engagement.