Beaver County Chronicle – A year in retrospective

JANUARY 2012

Beaver County’s Committee of the Whole considered draft level of service policies for road maintenance and snow clearance at its meeting on Jan. 4, 2012. The policy update was part of the County’s 2011 Strategic Priorities work program. “Council and Administration regularly receive feedback about the road network throughout the county so when we sat down to strategize in early 2011, it was clear that we needed better policies to guide the work we do,” said Beaver County Reeve Bob Young.

Don and Syd Sware of Tofield were presented Beaver County’s Farm Family Award. At the presentation were ASB Public at Large member Mark Giebelhaus, Councillor/ASB Vice-Chair Arnold Hanson, Reeve Bob Young, Councillor Sieko Scott, Deputy Reeve/ASB Chair Ron Yarham, ASB Public at Large member Donna Pope, and Councillor Dennis Miciak.

About 40 people attended an open house for public input on a water management study of the Vermilion River at St. Mary’s Hall south of Holden Thursday, Jan. 12. The discussion paper was for the development of a watershed management plan for the Vermilion River watershed in Alberta, which starts in an area south of the hall in Flagstaff County.

Beaver County councillors will be lobbying the provincial government for a way to upgrade the old plant or build a new seed cleaning facility to replace the aging plant in Holden. County representatives who sit on the plant’s board of directors told council Jan. 18 that the new colour sorter, which has been in place for about a year at the Holden seed cleaning facility, could generate enough business to make a new building feasible. Council agreed to pay the plant $24,000 as part of an earlier agreement to pay $12,000 per year for 2011 and 2012. The issue came up during a Jan. 5 meeting when the cooperative pointed out that the funding for 2011 had not been paid.

Sgt. Jim Warren and Cpl. Dave Brosinsky attended Beaver County Council to give a report Jan. 18, providing statistics generated by the enhanced policing position paid for by the county that operates out of Tofield Detachment. Warren attributed increased enforcement on Spilstead Road as part of the reason for 64 speeding tickets issued in October 2011. Warren said commuter traffic begins on the Spilstead at 6 a.m., so the traffic enforcement also began at that hour. “This surprised the pants off of them,” he said, of the speeding drivers that were caught.

Beaver County Council heard that a safety practice by pilot trucks for wide loads is considered dangerous and unwarranted by local RCMP. The practice involves veering into oncoming traffic to force them over to the side of the road prior to the arrival of huge vessels moving down the highway. Councillor Arnold Hanson (Division 5) told RCMP at council’s Jan. 18 meeting of incidents he has been told about where people have been driven off the side of the road. “We’ll go after them and charge them,” said Sgt. Jim Warren. “In my view, it’s dangerous.” He said people should get a license plate of the offending vehicle and report the incident, “because we will be able to track down which load went through at a particular time.”

Some people express anger over the increase in water rates for the regional waterline, despite explanations that this makes the service more fair for all customers. The commission raised fixed charges by over 220 per cent in Ryley, Holden and Bruce and 25 per cent in rural areas but this was later changed due to protests from water users.

For more see the Jan. 2/13 issue of the Tofield Mercury