The Village of Valley Waters says it’s footing the bill to widen a stretch of provincial highway between the elementary school and high school in Belleisle to allow safer pedestrian crossing after trying and failing to get the project on the province’s list.
Council voted unanimously to proceed with a project to add a pedestrian shoulder and a crosswalk on Route 124 between Belleisle Elementary School and Belleisle High School, CAO Angela McLean said Monday last week. The project is expected to cost up to $150,000 from the village’s capital reserves and be done before the next school year starts in September, according to McLean.
Mayor Randy McKnight said that they have been receiving concerns from Belleisle parents since fall 2024, and the mayor initially raised the issue in a statement in January 2025, in which he said a request to the province was denied.
“We feel this issue needs to be resolved, there’s clearly safety issues for students,” he told Brunswick News April 20. “They cross regularly for classwork … they cross to use the pool, they even cross as part of their fire plan.”
The schools are about 130 metres apart on a stretch of provincial highway that drops from 80 kilometres per hour to 50 km/h, instead of 30 km/h as in most school zones. McKnight said there are nearby residents who don’t qualify for busing, and the road does have a “blind turn” westbound before the school.
“My understanding is that there’s been some near-misses, close calls,” he said. “It’s just in our case a matter of time before that occurs without changes.”
He said that while police do patrol school zones in the Norton area, Belleisle is not a “high-priority” area for school-zone monitoring.
In the January 2025 statement, McKnight said DTI declined to add a crosswalk because “few pedestrians are crossing … over a sustained period of time,” quoting from a DTI evaluation that suggested that students crossing between the schools wear reflected safety vests.
McKnight said his understanding is that the province’s traffic survey took place during the summer, when schools are closed, saying he believed it would be different in peak times.
In February, McKnight said the village had meetings in February with DTI to try to push the issue forward, but “got no traction.” He said they decided to move forward with it as a unbudgeted expense coming from the capital reserves, saying “we can’t wait forever.”
“We were banging our heads against a wall over this,” the mayor said. “We had thought DTI would have a role to play here, it’s a provincial road, it’s in a school zone, it’s clearly (the) government of New Brunswick’s role to cost share this at least, or cover the entirety of the costs.”
Wards 1, 2 and 3 of Valley Waters, all but the former Village of Norton, depend on DTI for road maintenance, McKnight said, with the province exercising a property tax levy.
He said they’re not even looking for a formal sidewalk, just for “a widened shoulder that’s paved so students can walk safely” rather than the edge of the road. He said the $150,000 number is a “ballpark” estimate as they work with Dillon Consulting on a feasibility analysis, which he said is “not a small-ticket item for this village, for sure.”
McKnight said they are still looking for governmental funding, saying he “doesn’t think it should be on the backs of residential taxpayers,” but said student safety is “non-negotiable.” Despite not funding the project, he said that DTI requires that they perform the job to their specifications, which will increase the cost.
“I just want to get the word out there, we’re working on this, we’re looking for solutions, we’re looking for partnerships, collaboration with government,” McKnight said. “We’re just not getting it right now.”
Department of Transportation and Infrastructure spokesperson Jacob MacDonald said that the ministry “is open to dialogue and is committed to working collaboratively to support safe and appropriate solutions for the community.”
“Pedestrian infrastructure, such as sidewalks and trails, are generally the responsibility of municipalities, including along provincial highways within community boundaries,” MacDonald wrote in an email April 17, saying municipalities may do the work “subject to DTI review and approval.”
Kings Centre MLA Bill Oliver, a Progressive Conservative, said April 20 that the town’s plan has his “full support.”
“I understand the need. We have tried before to have DTI or Education to assist but it was not in their plans or met the criteria,” Oliver said in an email. “Students have been travelling between the schools for years and it has always been a concern of both parents and staff.”
When asked about the financing, Oliver said, “I applaud their efforts and hope that they are successful in having the government assist them with the financing.”
By Andrew Bates, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on May 13, 2026 at 07:23
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