Mom protests council's plan to axe school speed zones
Brittney and Patrick Douville walk home from school.
SASKATOON -- The mother who spearheaded the push for 30 km/h speed limits in school zones is renewing the campaign, now that city council is considering raising the limit around high schools.
"I really believe it would be wrong, big-time wrong, to change these zones," said Shelly Hanson, trying to keep her temper contained. She said she and her 15-year-old son are calling councillors to lobby for them to leave the zones as is.
Teenagers should know better about running into the street - but often don't, she said.
"There's no difference (between high school and elementary students)," she said. "It just doesn't make sense." See School Speed Ahead A/4
SASKATOON -- When they spot cars parked in their back alley in Pleasant Hill, Kim Mighton and Paul Fischer bang on the car windows and shine flashlights inside. Fischer admits he often goes further to chase the johns away.
"Every year I've beaten up someone here," said Fischer, folding his strong, tattooed forearms as he surveys the shady alley. "I give it to them pretty good."
Anything to get sex-trade workers and johns out of the alley a couple of metres from where the couple's young sons play. Johns and sex-trade workers don't only keep nighttime hours, they said.
"My kids were jumping on the trampoline and they're here in the car," Fischer said. "In broad daylight it happens."
When dispensing their personal brand of justice failed to contain prostitution, the couple summoned city hall. This week, council agreed to shut down the alley behind the 500 block of Avenue S South.
After Mighton complained, the city counted daytime traffic on the alley and found few vehicles use it, at least for getting around. A survey of the area found residents are overwhelmingly in favour of closing the alley.
Fire destroys newly built cabin
SASKATOON – The owner of a ready-to-move home business is baffled by a fire that destroyed a newly finished cabin Thursday night.
"There's no power to the buildings. Our electrical panels are in, but there's no gas, no electricity. We're out here on an island," said Scott Scissons, owner of Western Manufactured Homes.
Scissons shook his head as he watched one of four cabins burn to the ground at his compound south of Saskatoon on Highway 11 at Grasswood/Floral Road.
"This one was just finished today. We had blinds installed."
Saskatoon Fire and Protective Services were called to Western Manufactured Homes Thursday evening at about 7:47 p.m. and immediately began working on containing the fire to save the cabins just a few metres on either side of the one that was destroyed.
"We knew we weren't going to be able to save the building," said fire battalion chief Jim Wood as firefighters showered the adjacent buildings with water.
An investigator with the provincial fire commissioner's office was on the scene Thursday to determine the cause of the fire. Damage is estimated at $260,000.
SASKATOON – A tragic house fire in Pleasant Hill killed four people in the early morning hours of this past Wednesday.
Police said there had been a party at the residence earlier in the evening, and candles were left burning after the inhabitants went to sleep. The candles presumably ignited the blaze.
The names of the four adults who died – two male, two female – have not been released to the media pending notification of the families. The four were the only ones the house contained, and no one else was hurt. Police say alcohol was likely the prime factor in the fatalities.
