It’s looking like a sidewalk will eventually be built along 50th avenue by the C2 in Bonnyville. Pedestrian safety from 50th Avenue to 37th Street has been a hot-button topic in Bonnyville council since the topic was brought up in January. In Tuesday’s council meeting three ideas for a new walking path were presented.
All three options have a tentative cost of about $300,000 to build. Town Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Bill Rogers says running the sidewalk on the south of the road involves a little more work.
“If you go with the southside, it’s a shorter run as far as the apartment buildings but you have to deal with filling in whatever that wetland is so there are proximity issues there.”
Council voted to go with the third option, a northside sidewalk connecting to one already in place by the C2. The money for the sidewalk is expected to come out of an expected surplus in the 2019 budget. Mayor Gene Sobolewski says he doesn’t want to see earmarked money taken away from other projects for this job.
“My preference would be that if we’re anticipating a surplus then how about we as a council use some of that anticipated surplus to pay for this and not take away from what we already have budgeted.”
Council says the sidewalk will be built in two parts. They’re hoping a path will be made in 2019 with actual paving being done in 2020.
