UPDATE:
When it comes to phase two of the West Kelowna wine trail, part of Boucherie Road was torn up last spring and replaced with a narrower section of road, sidewalks and even a bike path. But, as the photo shows, there’s something wrong with where the telephone poles are located: They’re right in the middle of the sidewalk.
That has caught the attention of a citizens group, which has called it an embarrassment.
One member sarcastically wrote: “And don’t forget to try out our very friendly brand new sidewalks with their adorable telephone poles in the middle.”
The city says it didn’t know about the power poles until it was too late.
“When we approved the design, we didn’t go into the absolute minutiae and nothing that we saw on paper had telephone poles running down the middle of the sidewalk,” said city councilor Bryden Winsby. “We saw that after the fact when they were already in. It’s a question of oversight. Who is overseeing this project and actually who let this happen?”
Global News: “You don’t know who let this happen?”
Winsby: “I’m not going to name names.”
Global News: “Was it a staff member?”
Winsby: “It might have been. It should have been.”
Winsby says the city looked at putting power lines underground, but that would have cost $2 million. The city says Telus has agreed to move five of the nine poles that are in the middle of the sidewalk. The remaining four will be fixed by re-aligning the sidewalks at a cost of $8,000.
The nearly $9 million wine trail is expected to be finished in a couple of months.
ORIGINAL STORY:
Power poles in the middle of sidewalks and roundabouts that are off-centre are just two of several items that the City of West Kelowna is being roundly criticized for.
A watchdog membership calling itself the Audience Group says it’s flabbergasted with the city’s handling of phase two of the Wine Trail expansion. In an email to Global News, the group said “whoever designed this should be banned from ever planning any city project again.”
The city will be talking to Global News later today about the wine trail.
Meanwhile, the Audience Group’s lengthy and opinion-filled email started by stating “Yes, come and enjoy our brand new phase two Wine Trail. Some say it’s too narrow and feels restricted, but don’t be afraid, it’s legal even if you hit the new light standards that are at the curb. You will see spectacular boulevards on either side of the road. Why? Because we did not learn about boulevards from Phase One. And yes, we have new bike lanes, added at a great cost for the few bike people that will be using them.”
“And don’t forget to try out our very friendly brand new sidewalks with their adorable telephone poles in the middle (the blind and wheelchair-bound need not try out our new sidewalks for fear of injury and law suit).”
The group says at a cost of $8.7 million for 1.3 kilometres of replacement roadway and a new watermain, phase two is costing three times of phase one.
The group also mentioned two roundabouts, and one “at Anders road is offset and not centered on Boucherie Road, which has the potential to create issues. Also, we now learn that the private developer putting in a larger roundabout at the Glenrosa/Webber road site is doing it for 30 per cent less than one of the Boucherie Road roundabouts and at twice the speed of completion.”
“Whoever designed this should be banned from ever planning any city project again – or at the very least made to pay for the relocation of the telephone poles. The city’s manager/supervisor who is overseeing this project should be heavily sanctioned for allowing such a sidewalk. All that had to be done was to take away the boulevard and move the sidewalk to the road side of the telephone poles.”
“All this cost to make a “beautiful” wine trail when all the tourists want to do is get to the wineries.”
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