Town urges Kid Kare staff to use designated parking to ease street congestion

By Ian MacKay

Town officials want staff at Kid Kare to park in designated areas rather than along Sixth Avenue East.

Councillors asked acting chief administrator Amanda Bors to send a letter to Kid Kare, requesting that staff use the parking spaces south of the building shown on its building permit.

Two vehicles sit parked along the south side of Sixth Avenue East as three others belonging to parents picking up their children stand in front of Kid Kare daycare centre around 5:15 p.m. on Thursday. Photo by Ian MacKay

The day-care centre should “get the space cleaned up and use the staff parking so [their vehicles] are off the street, and that will make it more open for people to be able to drop off their children,” Councillor Jan Coffey-Olson said during the Jan. 5 meeting.

The town received a letter in November from a parent, noting that vehicles parked on the street create a dangerous situation on dark winter mornings for those backing out of the drop-off zone after leaving their children at the centre.

The letter writer suggested using the vacant lot across Sixth Avenue as a staff parking lot. However, the soil there, in what the town considers a park, is contaminated. Councillors also saw letters from neighbours, written in November 2022, opposing a proposal to use that area for parking.

The building permit for the new Kid Kare building, which opened in September, shows seven parking stalls in front—including one for disabled parking—plus a loading zone, and five parking stalls in the back, Bors said.

Snow hadn’t been removed from the back lot, where those five stalls are supposed to exist, said public works superintendent Bob Bors, who visited the site that day.

“There wasn’t one vehicle parked on the property when I went by,” he said. He added that “six or seven” vehicles he believed belonged to staff were parked on Sixth Avenue.

If Kid Kare workers used the designated spaces, it “should improve flow” through the area, Mayor Trevor Hay said. He also noted that many staff walk to work or get dropped off, so the situation “could be worse.”

A similar situation exists downtown, with people stopping at the post office to get their mail and leaving soon after, he added.

“It’s a change,” he said. “People aren’t used to what’s going on there.” He suggested that people who don’t have to travel past the daycare centre take another route.

Redirecting traffic “was part of the reason why we [repaved] Marshall Avenue,” he said, directing traffic away from locations such as Orange Memories and Walter Aseltine School.

Councillor Greg Carlson suggested using a strip of Kinsmen Park space west of the daycare centre for parking. Others noted, however, that some green space had been lost due to additions the Kinsmen Club made to make its playground more accessible.

“I see kids playing football and ball there all the time,” Hay said, noting that liability concerns could increase if balls hit people or vehicles.

The mayor also suggested improving the park across from the centre by installing benches and more trees, and seeking a sponsor for its naming rights.

“If you want to have a green space, maybe we should invest in it,” Hay said.

Councillors also decided to try to schedule a meeting with representatives from the Ball and Pin House and Wheatland Regional Centre after receiving a request to designate a parking spot close to the bowling alley for the centre’s van.

Nearby parking spaces are often filled when the van arrives with clients on outings, a letter from the centre indicated.

Councillors agreed to hold the meeting to determine the best location for a designated stall, rather than deciding without input from the parties involved.