The diligent work of two East End residents may wind up reshaping town bylaw when it comes to backup beepers in the near future.
Mayor Jeff Genung plans to bring forward a motion for administration to ban old-fashioned backup beepers, as research undertaken by Kevin Shier and Bryan Skrypnek reveal that the incessant noise produced by tonal backup alarms has impacted quality of life and may be harmful to human health.
“It’s about the industrial-residential interface,” said Genung, who remembers his early 2000s tenure on town council and East End residents plagued with noise concerns stemming from south of the railway tracks in the town’s industrial area.
The topography of the East End acts as an amphitheatre for sound.
Genung explained replacing tonal back-up alarms with sound-dissipating back-up alarms is non-invasive and cost-effective.
The new alarms, which sound like a quacking duck, are effective for safety alerts but do not emanate through the community like their predecessors.
Shier and Skyrpnek have been working with the town and Cochrane industrial businesses for some time.
Skrypnek would like to see the beeper change incorporated into bylaw, in order to maintain consistency and provide bylaw officers teeth.
“Spray Lake Sawmills and AllSpan have made great efforts to change over their units,” said Skrypnek, adding that the general working relationship among the parties has been positive and he would now like to see the initiative come full circle.
“The intent behind this whole thing is to make Cochrane a better place,” said Skrypnek. “There’s no reason anymore to have those old-style alarms in a public place.”
In the meantime, Genung said he would like to see a phasing-in and for the town to encourage businesses to undertake switching over to the new-style alarms on their own accord.
