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LETTER: Drivers urged to maintain speed limit through Clayburn Village

Editor:
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Letter writer Cathy Carder is urging drivers to keep to the speed limit when passing through Clayburn Village. (Abbotsford News file photo)

Editor:

To the citizens of Abbotsford,

As a resident of Clayburn Village for over 13 years, I want to acknowledge that many commuters who pass through our village on a daily basis must find it challenging to slow down to the posted 30 km. I thought it might help if I explained why the 30 km speed limit is there.

You may or may not know that Clayburn Village was first established in 1905 by the Maclure brothers when they discovered fire clay in the mountains east of here.

RELATED: Clyaburn residents fed up with speeders

They built a brickworks and became the first company town in all of British Columbia when they built wooden and brick homes for their workers. The brick homes on Clayburn Road were designed by Samuel Maclure (an architect) and were meant to showcase the possibilities with the beautiful bricks of the Clayburn Fireclay Company.

The Sumas flats, upon which the village and company were built, are on the water table. We can dig no more than 1.5 feet down before we hit water under our gardens and homes. Many of our homes are built without concrete foundations. The brick walls literally sit on dirt and float above the water table just a few feet below.

When cars or trucks drive along the roads here at speeds above 30 km, the vibrations on the ground reach the water and cause movement under our homes, loosening the mortar between our bricks and over time, compromising the structural integrity of our homes.

I understand the sacrifice we are asking you to make when we ask you to go only 30 km through our village. We appreciate your sensitivity and care of our homes and the heritage we long to preserve of a time gone by. Thank you for slowing down and being our neighbours. We really appreciate you.

Cathy Carder,

resident and owner of a 1907 brick cottage