What started as a request to look into removing the traffic islands from Third Avenue and Pine Street in downtown Timmins could lead to a full traffic revamp.
Coun. Cory Robin broached the island issue at city council’s regular meeting this week. It’s based on a plan to spend 435-thousand dollars over five years to refurbish the interlocking brick installations. But he says the islands are starting to show their age.
“They’re 35 years old and they’ve been hit by snowplows every winter,” Robin noted. “They’re starting to get smooth, people park on them, the benches have been removed for various reasons. There just needs to have some work done down there.”
Mayor George Pirie wants to see the scope broadened to include the possibility of one-way streets and re-timed lights on Algonquin Boulevard.
“That’s what I would prefer,” the mayor told his council. “I would like to see a study that’s robust enough to support, as Coun. Robin talks about, that would stand up for 35 years.”
The BIA is already working on its own long-term strategic plan. Council agreed to bring it in to the island-and-traffic discussion.