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City officials confused by Bridge St. petitions By Geoff Hoile west side of the street, Mrs. Judith Jolley appeared before Chronicle staff writer the Waterloo committeeâ€"ofâ€"theâ€"whole Monday with another A majority of Bridge St. residents want sidewalks on their petition signed by 17 of the 33 west side homeowners stating street, a majority of them don‘t, and Waterioo council is the ppposite point of view. caught square in the middle. A City of Waterloo engineering, proposed sidewalk proâ€" Following a petition signed the previous week by 25 Bridâ€" ject on the west side of Bridge St. was submitted under secâ€" ge St. residents saying they did not want sidewalks on the tion 12 of the Local Improvement Act to take advantage of By Geofft Hoile Chronicle stafft writer A majority of Bridge St. residents want sidewalks on their street, a majority of them don‘t, and Waterioo council is caught square in the middle. ol By Geoff Hoile Chromcle staff writer Regional police have laid 300 traffic charges in the last six weeks and they still All candidates meetings featuring Waterioo Riding canâ€" didates for the May 22 federal election, will be held on Friâ€" day, May 4 at the Adult Recreation Centre (corner of King and Allen Sts ) at 2 p.m. and Tuesday May 8. 9 a m. at Bluevale Collegiate. The public is invited to attend Allâ€"candidates meeting to be held in Waterloo May 9 The excellence of the performance is reflected in the concentration in faces of these two young contestants in the Kiwanis Club‘s 31st annual Waterloo County Music Festival. Both violinists were part of competing string quartets performing at the University of Waterioo Thursday. Close to 6,000 young musicians made up the 1,777 entries in this year‘s festival which began April 23. and finishes tomorrow. | olice fail to slow down Westmount Rd. drivers Kiwanis Music Festival can‘t slow down the speedâ€" ing motorists along Westâ€" mount Rd. According to Traffic Sgt. Harold Harmer of the Waâ€" terloo Regional Police. exâ€" cessive speed is the largest contributing factor in the high accident rate there Last year Westmount Rd was the scene of 307 traffic accidents â€" one a fatality The fastest speeder caught by the radar this year on the busy Waterloo thoroughfare. was doing 45 kilometres over the 50 km speed limit,. said Sgt Harmer. an offence that carries a penalty of four deâ€" merit points and a fine of $104. In spite of radar units daily patrolling the road. "I don‘t think we‘ve slowed anâ€" ybody down.,"" he sard. Officers are assigned in various shifts each day to traffic duty on Westmount Rd between 7 a m. and 2 a m. the following day. but pressure from other assignâ€" ments determines whether or not they actually set up a Parking â€" | A question of time the fact the‘street is currently torn up for installation of sanitary sewers. A petition signed by a majority of the west side homeowners was all that would be required to stop the sidewalk installation and the 25â€"signature petition was subâ€" mitted last week. Mrs. Jolley claimed the resident who solicited signatures for that petition misrepresented the facts and confused some of the homeowners, who subsequently indicated they wanted the sidewalks to be constructed. City Council is now in the position of having received two petitions on the same subject expressing opposite stands on the same subject. Owners of eight of the properties on the origing} 25â€"name list have apparently changed their minds and signed the latest petition. The new list indicates that in addition to sidewalks the residents along the west side of Bridge St. would like to have adequate street lighting. Mr. Ayers advised Mrs. Jolley that the advice of the city solicitor would be sought in properly defining the City‘s poâ€" sition concerning the two petitions. Since the work was orâ€" iginally submitted under section 12 of the Act, a valid petiâ€" tion opposing the proposed work would prevent undertaking of the sidewalk construction under that section for two years. If the proposal is resubmitted under section 8 of the Act as a necessary installation, a single opposing vote from one of the Bridge St. residents would push the matter into arbitration by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), a process that would delay any. decision for several months. A third alternative would be for a twoâ€"thirds majority of homeowners (with both parties signing in the case of jointâ€" ownership) to petition the City to go ahead with the work under section 7 of the Act. According to Waterloo Deputy Clerk Lew Ayers, the street lighting is already in the City‘s 1979 budget and will be paid for out of the general tax levy, whereas the sideâ€" walks constitute a local improvement, the cost of which would be divided among the west side homeowners whose property abutts onto the proposed sidewalk area. In view of the number of rather complicated choices and the uncertain legal status of the initial petition, the matter is being referred first to legal counsel and then to the City‘s administrative committee for comment. _ By Geoff Hoile Chronicle staff writer ‘‘We are the only comâ€" munity of our size in the whole of Canada that doesn‘t have paid parking, and we want to keep it that way." Waterloo merchant Ed Bergman made the comâ€" ment during a conversation in which he pointed out a mistake in an article that appeared in last week‘s Chronicle. In the article, "Local merchant angered by parking problem,"‘ we made the statement, ‘"The plan to beautify the downâ€" town business sector of Waâ€" terloo could drive away as many as 90 customers a week according to one King St. merchant." He says the rate would be 90 customers a day if you take two customers per hour over a nineâ€"hour day in each of five parking spaces that will be lost in each city block revitalized. Mr. Bergman, who says he might fight the redeveâ€" lopment when it reaches his block, suggested that ‘"if you took a survey, you‘d find that more than 50 per cent of the merchants along King Police records indicate most of the accidents occur at intersections with people making turns. Sgt. Harmer explained that in the maâ€" jority of cases drivers makâ€" ing left turns on an amber light tend to misjudge how tast speeding vehicles are approaching radar trap. and for how long. o Although they didn‘t have substantiating data availaâ€" Waterioo Chronicle, Wednesday, May 2, 1979 â€" Page 3 , Ms. Lang added that the people who were parking on King St. were not necessariâ€" ly shoppers. ‘"In a lot of cases it was the owners of the businesses or their emâ€" ployees. And the day is gone when people expect to be able to park on a main street in front of the stores where they shop." St. in Kitchener, if they had the choice, would put it back the way it was." Sixtyâ€"nine parking meters were reâ€" moved from downtown Kitchener during a similar beautification program in 1975. the Decor Shoppe in downâ€" town Kitchener and is active in the downtown developâ€" ment program, said there are still some merchants asking for the parking back, but she "wouldn‘t go so far as to say half*. There are 20 to 30 less this year comâ€" plaining about the loss of parking spaces than there were last year, she said. She believes theâ€"shoppers are divided into two distinct groups â€" regardless of where they park their cars â€" mall shoppers and main street shoppers. ble on short notice, the reâ€" gional police consider Westâ€" mount Rd. is probably the biggest traffic problem in Waterloo at the time. City officials are hoping that completion of a portion of the University Ave. West extension from Erb St. to Hallman Rd. will direct some of the traffic flow away from Westmount and alleviate the current probâ€" lem Carol Lang, who operates