Kelowna News

School District 23 wants to stop gravel trucks from rolling past schools while students are heading to and from school.

The district Board of Education unanimously endorsed a recommendation to send a letter to the province asking that restrictions be placed on the movement of gravel trucks past schools.

"We are concerned again about the whole question of gravel pits and trucks going past our schools at the times students are coming and going from schools," says board chair Rollie Cacchioni.

"There was a recommendation that we again write a letter to the Minister of Mines indicating we would like to see some restrictions on the travel of gravel trucks past our schools. The one we referenced particularly was Highway 33 where Black Mountain Elementary is."

Cacchioni says the board would like the movement of gravel trucks restricted between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. along Highway 33.

He says the board has heard from many parents in the area concerned for the safety of their children.

"We already have the logging trucks coming back and forth, we now have the pulp trucks going back and forth to Castlegar and now we are going to have these gravel trucks. If you look at the amount of gravel they want to extract, it's extremely high. We have to make sure the safety of our children is protected."

Cacchioni says the board is also making another appeal to become more involved in gravel pit applications in the future.

"The second issue is we requested again that school districts across the province have intervener status on gravel pit applications. Any time there is a proposal for a gravel pit, there is an automatic notification to the school district so they have an opportunity for input before it goes to a public hearing."