NEIGHBORS WANT WALK CLOSED TO CURB HANGOUT

A group of Steinbach residents living near the regional school is asking
the city to close a sidewalk in their neighborhood in hopes of cutting down
on drug crimes and loitering by students.

The neighbors, who live across from the high school on Cottonwood Drive and
Cottonwood Bend, just north of McKenzie Avenue, made their request to city
council on Tuesday through a petition signed by nearly two dozen residents.

Several of the neighbors told council they feel closing the sidewalk, which
acts as a shortcut from McKenzie Avenue to Cottonwood Drive and also
Barkman Avenue, would help to deal with the ongoing problem of drug use,
drug dealing and general loitering going on for much of the day.

One resident said the problem has been aggravated by the fact the high
school is charging students for parking, prompting more of them to park
their cars on Cottonwood.

Another said police are well aware of the problem but have been unable to
catch anyone in the act of using or selling drugs because of the many
escape routes out of the neighborhood.

"When the kids see a police car in the area, they just scatter among the
houses and disappear," one man told council.

The problem is most severe, the neighbors, say, during the lunch hour,
during breaks and after classes are out for the day.

They also spoke of the amount of garbage strewn about the area and frequent
use of profanity by students.

Mayor Les Magnusson, who along with council had not seen the petition until
Tuesday, told the group council's first step will be to refer the request
to the RCMP to see if police have any recommendations.

The sidewalk was built in 1992 to accommodate pedestrian traffic to and
from the school after many students were already taking this route by
walking over neighbors' yards.

It was noted the neighborhood is quite open with few hedges or other
obstructions among the properties.

Council hopes to receive a report on the situation in the near future.