Bicycles were on the minds of many on Tuesday.
At its May 9 meeting, the Chase village council was considering the village’s Streets and Parking Amendment Bylaw, which governs a “skateboard, push scooter, bicycle or other wheeled implement except a wheelchair or similar necessary mobility implement” and their use on sidewalks downtown.
A new amended bylaw would have restricted bicycles from all the sidewalks in Chase, not just downtown, but council rejected it.
Chief administrative officer Joni Heinrich said council received a lot of feedback regarding the proposed changes. Some of the feedback came from the people who packed council chambers Tuesday.
On a Chase-oriented Facebook page, one resident commented: “In today’s council meeting, our mayor and council made it clear they will not be moving forward with it and from what I understood, they’ll be looking to change the original bylaw to suit our needs and safety.”
Heinrich told the Market News that council will stick to the intent of the original bylaw, to restrict people between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. weekdays on the sidewalks downtown in the business core.
“It’s saying, please, don’t ride your bike when people are going in and out of shops.”
She said the language in the old bylaw will be revamped a little to reflect council’s intentions and address people’s concerns.
“A little bit of wording in the bylaw makes it a little ambiguous as to whether you could push a bicycle beside you on downtown sidewalks. We’re going to change that language.”
Anywhere but downtown during those hours, children will still be able to ride on sidewalks with parents helping them, she said, noting that’s what residents wanted.