Picture Butte seeking business feedback on Highway Ave Beautification Project

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By Nikki Jamieson
Sunny South news

Feedback is being sought from business owners on Picture Butte’s Highway Avenue Beautification Plan.

Picture Butte town council had approved the project in their 2020 budget, and the proposed plans presented at their regular July 6 meeting contained four potential options the town could implement. These plans are not yet finalized, and still need to be presented to property owners in the area.

The plans included potential options for tree, planter and bench placements.

“Just in case businesses come back and say they don’t like us taking up that much space in front of their business, we can at least supply a tree,” said Chad Parsons, director of operations for the town.

“The hope is that with four options, we’ll find something that there won’t be major opposition to.”

Some of those options feature a bench and planter/tree placement in front of some businesses both sides of Highway Avenue. Mayor Cathy Moore said she didn’t foresee an issue some businesses. with a bench in front of Coun. Teresa Feist asked if it would eliminate a parking space with a bench and tree it to be unappealing to option, which may cause businesses, which would. Parsons confirmed it Coun. Henry de Kok member who owned a said he had a family business on Highway the idea of a bench and Avenue, and they loved tree along there. tured jut-outs at the The plans also fea-Highway Avenue/4th Street intersection and midway through the block east of the intersection. talked with someone Feist said she had from Sedgewick, Alta., where they had done something similar on a Highway running through their town for safety reasons, and they slowing traffic down. said it worked well in Parsons added they trying to put a crosswalk signal on Highway Avenue as well, and he quote from Fortis recently received a Alberta, and while the town would need to pay to implement it, Fortis would not charge the town to do it. The town would still need approval from Alberta Transportation to do so, however.

“That’s a different issue altogether. So, so far, so good with Alberta Transportation, they have not injected to anything, any major thing anyway, and everything they have brought up we have implemented in this plan,” said Parsons. “I think it’s unlikely they’ll kibosh the whole thing at the last minute, you never know… But nevertheless, they should have no issue with this because we’ve tried to implement everything that they brought up as a concern.”

Feist raised concern over a previous survey that was done on the Highway that indicated that there was enough traffic volume to warrant a signalized crosswalk there. Parsons stressed that Alberta Transportation haven’t objected to the idea yet. De Kok clarified that Alberta Transportation had said back then that they weren’t going to pay for it, but the town could put one in if they wanted to pay for it.

Council passed a motion to approve the attached proposal for presentation to property owners adjacent to the project, and barring major objections, administration proceed to implement the option most amenable to those property owners.

Once the feedback has been received, barring major objections, the town plans to tentatively start work on this project on Sept. 8, 2020.

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