Beaver County’s Community Peace Officer Rick Ells joined Viking Council recently for a discussion of the new role CPOs will have enforcing traffic rules on highways around Viking.

The town has hired the county CPOs to conduct traffic enforcement on the 14, 36 and 619 highways in the local area.

Ells said the job would entail working with town CAO Don McLeod and providing a monthly report on what the CPOs have been doing.

Councillor Clint Nearing asked “what are the priorities for the town” for enforcement.

Ells said the enforcement on highways 14 and 36 would be the priority because that is where the CPOs have jurisdiction. He noted that parking issues on the service road was something he had already noticed, along with the truck traffic and cattle liners on the 619.

“The whole intersection needs reworking,” he said, referring to the county road on the east side of town where trucks turning off the highway have resulted in rollovers.

He’s also noticed “a lot of speed” going past the Viking Carena on the 619 heading out of town. Ells promised that enforcement will not be predictable with the CPOs working nights and weekends.

“We’ll show up at odd hours,” he said, and will be checking the enforcement on 619 while heading out to Camp Lake.

“Piggy backing” the two issues means there would be “no travel expenses” for the town.

The CPOs also do commercial vehicle enforcement such as checking for overloads, something Ells said the RCMP generally aren’t doing.

READ THE FULL STORY in the April 21 edition of The Weekly Review – on newsstands or buy the single issue online below:

Print is still the most effective medium. Attract LOCAL customers by supporting LOCAL media.

ADVERTISE!

ads@weeklyreview.ca

Patricia Harcourt
Editor