As most people know, the City of Kimberley is going to rebuild the flume on Mark Creek in order to make it safer and more appealing to the public.

I am in full support of this plan but there is one aspect of it that I disagree with. That is the removal of the bridge over the creek on St. Mary's Avenue.

Although a footbridge would be a good idea, since there is a lot of foot traffic that uses that area to walk either up or down the trail for access to the school or other facilities to the south, there is also a lot of vehicular traffic that uses that bridge, especially in the winter. Even in the summer, that bridge gets a lot of use and for a very good reason.

Leadenhall Street, where it intersects with Wallinger Avenue, is a royal pain in the neck. For starters there is a slight incline there and Wallinger Avenue has a large curve right there.

Even in the summertime, it is very hard to access Wallinger since a person has to creep out quite a ways to see if there is any traffic coming before they can pull out onto the road.

If there are vehicles parked in front of the church, or the parking lot for the business on the other side of Leandenhall is blocked, a person basically takes their lives in hand trying to get out there. In the wintertime, it is even worse.

Wallinger is the main highway through town and it gets plowed on a regular basis. When that happens, there is always a large build up of snow on Leadenhall, which makes traction up the hill very poor.

Most people avoid going up that hill and use the St. Mary's bridge for easier access to the rest of town.

The decision to remove the bridge tells me that the people who make decisions regarding this process don't have a clue how things are in the winter, let alone any other time of the year.

Maybe they should have asked people who will be affected by this decision what they think of it.

I use that bridge two to four times every day. It is convenient and a much safer route to take when there is a lot of snow on the ground.

Yes, ther will only be a dozen or so places affected by this decision but there are a lot of elderly people living down in this area.

Removing that bridge and not replacing it would be a tragic mistake, especially if special services are required in the form of ambulance or fire trucks. Please, don't remove the bridge.