Chatham-Kent is moving ahead with plans to replace crossing guards with automated crosswalks.
Councillor Joe Faas suggested council put up to $500,000 aside for the devices, which will cost anywhere from $10,000 to $60,000 each.
"Once they compile all the information and the calculations and whatever they have to do, that will determine how much we will be spending," says Faas.
The total figure for how much the crosswalks will cost will be ironed out later this summer.
The motion barely passed in a 9-8 vote, but Faas thinks that may be because some councillors thought the municipality should be looking at installing crosswalks at other areas that aren't manned by crossing guards at this time.
"My opinion of that is that we should deal with the ones we know about and if there are other areas we can deal with them on an as they become available basis," says Faas. "My fear was that if we started concentrating on all the areas, who knows how long it would take to get the ones done that are currently manned by crossing guards?"
Faas says during the discussion, Councillor Bryon Fluker made a successful motion to have crossing guards stay on duty until November so that students going to school in the early fall will have someone to help them cross the street while the crosswalks are being installed.
While Faas says he hasn't heard any reaction to the decision from parents yet, Jenelle Jackson-Finley, who started an online petition to keep crossing guards in Dresden, told BlackburnNews.com she's very happy to hear the news.
"I am thrilled," says Jackson-Finley. "I think at the end of the day for our community, we knew we needed something and we were really fearful if nothing was there what would happen to the younger people."
Jackson-Finley is happy to know that there will be some safety devices in place now, but she also recognizes that the move means she will have a bit more free time again.
"It's nice to see because now I can go and gather up all my papers," says Jackson-Finley. "I had that online petition, but I also had a whole bunch of paper petitions circulating too."