It’s not a street light, but you could call it the first light in the District of Clearwater.

Work is now done on a flashing pedestrian crosswalk across Highway 5, at Clearwater Village Road and the Old North Thompson Highway.

Mayor Merlin Blackwell says council has long been lobbying for improvements to that intersection.

“The province paid for it because it’s on a highway, so it’s not ours,” he says.

“The need is actually for a proper intersection there. And council’s been lobbying for over a decade to have either a stop light, a roundabout, or an overpass-underpass. Some form of proper crossing there… The great irony, or sadness, is the fact that the last person killed at that intersection was the father of councillor Lynn Frizzle, who’s on our current council right now. Quite a lot of years ago.”

He says it’s a dangerous corner that is increasingly being used.

“With the development in Clearwater, it now is sort of the intersection most people use to get out of the Trans Mountain camp, and the newly-evolving industrial area in Clearwater.”

Meanwhile, Blackwell says 10 kilometres of Highway 5 has also been paved in both directions – something he was pleased to see and says was long overdue.

(Photo: Merlin Blackwell)