Charing Cross residents can celebrate now that council has decided to keep the traffic lights at a local intersection.
Councillor Karen Herman's motion for the traffic lights at Charing Cross Rd. and Middle Line to remain permanently was approved 15-1 at Monday night's council meeting. Herman created the motion after hearing about a petition created by Charing Cross community members fighting to keep the traffic lights, which they say make the intersection much safer for both drivers and pedestrians.
According to Herman, the traffic lights were temporarily installed by the Ministry of Transportation to accommodate traffic flow during the Hwy. 40 construction. She says permanent traffic lights will now be installed in 2018.
"Charing Cross is going to have those lights remain. I just to want to truly thank those residents that started this petition and said their voice needed to be heard. Chatham-Kent council heard them and supported them," says Herman.
According to Herman, the total project cost is $175,000, which is only $25,000 more than recommendations from a report submitted by the municipality's Infrastructure and Engineering Services.
"[The report] outlined a couple of options. One was to just rejig the road so that it would straighten it out. The other was to make sure that stop signs were going to be put in place. Again, this was the best option at putting a permanent light on Charing Cross Rd.," she says.
Despite conflicting data from Infrastructure & Engineering Services, which says traffic lights are not necessary at the intersection based on studies, Herman says council went with the best option.
"I go with the decision of council. Council makes the decision as to what they believe is the right decision. In this case, it was because of the people. The people decided that's what they wanted and that's what council decided that they wanted to do," says Herman.
Mayor Randy Hope agreed with Herman, saying he supports a motion that will ensure the safety of residents and especially children. He says there is a park and baseball diamond nearby that requires some kids to pass through the intersection to go play.
Likewise, Councillor Trevor Thompson says since the traffic lights have already been up and running for a while, it would not make sense to take them away. Thompson says this would have been the third change to that intersection in a year and half. He says after a while, drivers get used to these changes and the municipality needs to recognize that.