Paying their debt 

Some of the young people involved in vandalising a town well to the tune of $65,000 dollars are busy working off their 600 hours of community service. One of the first tasks for the four 16-year-olds involved removing the lagoon fence under the supervision of Jasper’s Environmental Services department.

“We haven’t had any problems,” said department director Ken Quackenbush, who added that work on the fence has since been suspended until after the spring thaw.

The youths have also spent time working for Community and Family Services.

“They were there from ten until six on a Saturday,” said CFS manager Kathleen Waxer. “They were helpful, polite, willing and capable.”

Four-way denial

There will be no four-way stop placed where Patricia and Spruce meet, but a crosswalk will be painted on the north side of the intersection next spring.

The town’s traffic advisory committee had rejected a public request for a stop sign at that location more than a month ago, Environmental Services Director Ken Quackenbush told council Tuesday in response to questions from Councillor Gloria Kongsrud. Kongsrud had received inquiries from Jasper residents about the intersection.

The committee decided not to bring the request forward to council after determining that a stop sign would be unnecessary. One reason cited by the committee was that traffic volume in that part of town was not as heavy as at the other Patricia Street intersections where stop signs had been placed, such as Hazel, Pine and Cedar.

In addition, RCMP Corporal Don Lewis had indicated to the other members of the committee that traffic speed would be most effectively calmed by a regular police presence near the intersection, while installing a stop sign would have less impact.

The intersection has been added to a list for crosswalk painting next spring, however.

The curbs around the future crosswalk will also be painted yellow, a measure that should alleviate the obstructed view of the intersection, a matter that had been raised as a concern, according to Quackenbush.

“It sounds like it’s received appropriate consideration,” Mayor  Richard Ireland said.

The deliberations of the traffic safety committee, consisting of Quackenbush, Lewis, Chief Bylaw Enforcement Officer Doug Rodwell and Verne Balding, Jasper’s director of corporate and legislative services, will in future be available for public perusal on the municipality’s website.

Now entering the interpretive sector

Plans are afoot to design the signage for Jasper’s Perimeter Trail. A committee will meet to hash out a plan, with representation from the municipality, Parks Canada, the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives and Friends of Jasper National Park. Temporary signs are slated to appear later this year. The project plans call for the construction of an information kiosk near the AMA building on Connaught as well as two orientation kiosks at both ends of that same street.

Signage on the trail has been divided into subsections according to location and the interpretive signs will include information about living in a national park, the history of Jasper and the importance of the railway. These signs are slated for placement in the spring. A full progress report on the Perimeter Trail Project is available on the town website, www.jasper-alberta.com

Saturday stories at the library

Saturday sees Alberta author Tololwa Mollel dropping by the Jasper Municipal Library to show off his storytelling abilities. Mollel, a Tanzanian by birth, is a children’s author who uses traditional folklore as the inspiration for his work. His novel “The Orphan Boy” won the Governor General’s Award for children’s literature in 1990.

The event, which is scheduled to begin at ten in the morning, is free and library staff recommend arriving early due to limited space for seating.

Mollel’s work is well-suited to elementary school-aged children, but the library’s Kelsi Roode said that his oeuvre is also wide-ranging enough to satisfy kids of all ages.

“He’ll be doing a reading, but he’s also a dramatist and a storyteller so it will be more exciting than your average reading,” she said.

The event is sponsored by the Alberta Winter Games.