Editor:
Re: South Lakeside Drive:
The problem of South Lakeside will face the new mayor and council. It is not going away or resolving itself.
1) When they rebuilt South Lakeside Drive to accommodate Walmart and new development on South Lakeside, the money spent on remodelling and changes from what we had has only made it worse for business and residents living on South Lakeside.
2) South Lakeside Drive was at maximum traffic capacity before the remodelling took place. It is more confusing and bottle necked now than before.
3) In about one-tenth of a mile on the left side of the road there are eight possible left-hand turns into existing businesses. Only one has a left-turn signal. The steady flow of truck traffic all day long, b-train tankers, b-train chip trucks, logging trucks, high-boys hauling freight to businesses, and all other truck and automobile traffic wishing to turn left must stop all traffic behind them on South Lakeside Drive to wait for oncoming traffic to clear before being able to safely make a left-hand turn. At present traffic flow, it is barely workable.
More box stores in the Walmart complex will make it totally unworkable, not to mention the possible 400 residential houses above Walmart.
Then, on the upper side of South Lakeside Drive there are six driveways that were made steeper because of prior road changes. Large trucks entering or exiting businesses sometimes take up more than one lane. Also, many large trucks must cut more than one lane to make deliveries to area businesses.
I would suggest the new mayor and council spend 12 hours a day, seven days a week observing traffic from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. for one month.
They will then understand and build the road to Walmart some place above Mainline Roofing, where the road should have been in the first place.
This old cowboy’s opinion.
Peter Epp Sr.
Williams Lake