By Gina Dunn
“Why does Porters Lake not have sidewalks?” “From the French school to Porters Lake Elementary to O’Connell Drive Elementary would be great to connect our community and have a village”. “Sheet Harbour has sidewalks, why can’t we?”
“Why does Porters Lake not have a cross walk?” “Musquodoboit Harbour has a cross walk and Sheet Harbour has 3 crosswalks.” “Porters Lake has people darting across the highway by the strip mall, someone is going to be killed”.
These are the questions that have been asked for years but to no avail. Porters Lake is the business hub for the western end of the Eastern Shore and the main drag is chaotic. There’s a French school, seniors’ residence, daycare, strip mall, various businesses across from the mall, another elementary school close by on a connector road to a 100 series highway, shoulders that are narrow or non-existent and a school zone that most people speed through. When will anything be done to help fix this mess?
Local resident, Janice Nussey, has been advocating and writing letters trying to get the government to pay attention (her letter appeared in the May issue of the ESC). Most of the correspondence has been the provincial government saying it is the municipality’s responsibility and vice versa. However, one email response from the Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, stated that the “Department will only consider the installation of a crosswalk following a request from HRM or the School Board. As part of the request, HRM must agree to pay the cost of installation and maintenance for a crosswalk prior to our District Traffic Supervisor conducting the assessment. To date, we have not received this request.” A request has not been received? After all these years HRM has never requested a crosswalk in Porters Lake?
Stella Drive construction has also been announced on the Province’s Capital Fund list for 2019-2020. “The project currently on our Capital Plan for 2019-20 for the re-alignment of Stella Drive is intending to provide one access point onto Trunk 7. The west end near the Superstore will be dead ended with a cul de sac and eastern end of Stella Drive where it meets Trunk 7 will be re-aligned to more of a perpendicular entrance to improve the sight lines and approach angle onto Trunk 7.”
Maybe something is going to happen sooner than later?
We will be following this ongoing issue. Let us know what you think.
