BOYLE — Boyle councillors said a visit from Lynda Koot, ATB facilities manager, provided a new level of clarity to an ongoing conversation around accessibility, parking, and forward-thinking decision making for the village’s future.
Koot appeared as a delegation in front of councillors during their May 15 meeting to provide context for ATB’s recent request to close customer access through the branch’s back door and install an accessible parking stall near the front doors on 3 Street.
“We didn’t ask you to come here to solve a problem today, just to understand what we’re looking at and what our concerns are,” Mayor Colin Derko told Koot. “Obviously, we need to understand what your concerns are, and then we’ll find a solution.”
“I am so glad we had that delegation,” said Coun. Shelby Kiteley, adding the face-to-face discussion allowed the parties to bypass misunderstandings potentially arising from digital communication.
Parking and planning problems
The request was initially received at the start of 2024 via a letter from Koot, which councillors first discussed during their Jan. 17 meeting. ATB’s rear entrance closures are taking place in branches across the province for increased security.
“If we start putting Para ramps (and accessible stalls) in front of every business at their request, I’m not just concerned about the cost of it … but I’m concerned about downtown parking,” Derko told councillors in January.
“You look at places like Athabasca and Lac La Biche, they’ve been fighting tooth and nail to try and get parking in their downtown core, and we’re going to be taking it away?”
Boyle’s ATB branch has a back-alley parking lot complete with accessible stalls, but a lack of sidewalks on either side of the branch would mean clients with accessibility needs have no direct pathway to the front door.
Councillors also voiced concerns about the placement of the potential ramp and parking stall, pondering where the best location to install them would be to serve all storefronts along the east side of 3 Street.
The item was deferred to a public works meeting, and discussed by council during their April 17 meeting, when it was again deferred for more information.
Small town survival
“Small town Alberta is probably one of my favourite places to be,” said Koot. “Boyle was one of the first small towns I came to visit … it’s just kind of neat now that I’m coming back for work,” she said.
Koot, who oversees 67 branches across the northern portion of the province, said the treasury started in a small town in 1938 and service in similar communities remains a priority.
“ATB’s first location was not in Calgary or not in Edmonton, it was in a rural community, in Rocky Mountain House,” said Koot. “ATB exists to make things possible for Albertans … where Albertans are.”
Boyle’s branch is now the sole bank in the village after CIBC closed its Boyle location in May of this year due to low in-branch business volume.
“A lot of financial institutions have looked at their physical distribution strategies over the last while, and some have made decisions to leave some of the rural communities, and that’s not the stance that ATB wants to take,” said Koot.
Instead, she added, the treasury is considering how to be more viable in smaller communities, which includes increased safety and security measures.
“The request itself is not the issue, it’s the makings around how to make things work,” said Derko. “As a council, we’re concerned about downtown parking, and we’re concerned about congestion; we’re concerned about progression.”
Although the back entrance of a number of ATB branches around the province have been closed, Koot noted the institution isn’t in favour of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.
“We haven’t yet closed that back door, and if it comes down to the fact that feasibility-wise, closing it is not the most realistic because of the ability to get around from the back, then that needs to become an ATB consideration on what can we do to continue to keep that door accessible.”
Koot said she and ATB risk team members will come up with alternative options for the Boyle branch, which may include a redesign of sightlines within the building.
“These conversations are really important —the small communities are important to us, and I think that we’re important to you guys,” said Koot. “How can we work together is the biggest thing that we want to look at.”
