Winnipeg man puts up traffic light without permission to promote school zone safety

Frustrated electrician lights up school zone Touria Izri reports on a man taking matters into his own hands after pushing the city to make a school zone more noticable.

WINNIPEG — After years of delays, one local electrician took matters into his own hands and installed a flashing amber light to tell drivers to reduce their speed at his son's former school.

Five years ago, Chuck Lewis bought a number of solar-powered flashing lights and said he would give them to the city free of charge. He also said we would maintain them for a minimum of 10 years.

The lights are programmed to flash during school hours, reminding drivers they are entering a school zone and to slow down to 30 km/h.

Fast forward to today, the city still hasn't taken him up on the offer.

"If they had accepted the offer back when we started we'd probably have half of Winnipeg done by now," said Lewis.

Lewis said the city wouldn't have to pay for anything.

"It's costing the city nothing, it costs about $7000 per school, and we’re maintaining them for free," he said.

When the offer was first floated, the city said Lewis had to go to the provincial government.

He came back to the city years later, and it said the delay was due to the workers’ union wanting to install the lights, a request Lewis was okay with.

Coun. Kevin Klein supports the installation of the lights and blames council for the delay.

"This is a result of weak leadership and a result of red tape," he said.

Klein put a motion forward several months ago for the lights, but said the committee delayed it further.

"It makes nothing but sense and all I keep hearing is delay, delay, delay," said Klein.

According to Klein, traffic calming is a major issue at city hall and these lights would help with that.

"It's time to stop talking and stop engineering the statements and get to work on items that will make a difference," he said.

As for the unsanctioned light put up on Thursday, Lewis said the city will probably take it down soon but he hopes it gets people talking about the issue.

On Friday Lewis told CTV News Winnipeg he took down the light Thursday night, saying it was too low and he didn’t want it vandalized. He plans to put it up again next week.