Nearly six years after a local man offered to supply and install flashing amber lights across Winnipeg’s school zones, the project remains in limbo.
The simple plan hit another snag recently with both Chuck Lewis, owner of Expert Electric, and the city saying they are waiting to hear from the other.
Lewis says the city installed a single set of his lights, but in order to continue it offered him a second contract, which his lawyer advised against signing.
“(The city) sent me a contract, I took it to my lawyer. They said it’s way too vague, way too many loopholes in there, so I sent it back to them and agreed that I’d go back (to) the first contract that we signed. It was fair to both (sides). And I never heard anything else since then,” Lewis said.
“This one, it had little things open like if somebody ever got hit in one of the school zones who would be responsible, it looked like maybe I could be responsible, things like that.”
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However, in an email response to Global News, the city says it hasn’t received a reply from Lewis about the legal agreement and “considers the project shelved at this point.”
“The city was supportive of the proposed project, and made a genuine effort to try to move the project forward however there were a number of conditions that needed to be finalized for the project to move forward,” a spokesperson wrote.
Those included some school zones needing more than the two beacons Lewis agreed to supply, Lewis’ agreement to install two beacons per month not being fast enough, and new mounting posts needed for every location, which would end up costing the city.
Lewis, who at one point grew so fed up with the bureaucratic headache he rescinded the offer, calls the debacle “mind-blowing.”
“There’s no one that you can actually go to (at) the city because there’s just too many departments, too many layers,” Lewis said.
“Then pretty soon, everybody who’s trying to get something done can’t get anything done because one person doesn’t talk to the other department, doesn’t talk to the other department, and everybody’s blaming each other.”
The project has hit multiple hurdles over the years.
Lewis’ initial offer to supply, install, and maintain the lights was whittled down to just supplying the lights, so union jobs wouldn’t be affected. Then there were questions about how many lights would be needed. There have also been concerns the entire time about how much money the city would need to pay to actually make it happen.
“It has been five years. We could have probably had 50, 60 schools done by now,” Lewis said. “They know where I am and they know how to get a hold of me.”
On Friday Councillor Kevin Klein, of the Charleswood-Tuxedo ward, released a statement saying he intends to introduce a motion requesting the public service “provide details on the council-approved gift status.”
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