Athabasca town councillors’ disagreements over its 2012 budget — particularly the hotly-contested decision to pave the old Colinton highway to Hees Estates — spilled over to social media last week.
After word spread about town council's decision, the Facebook group “Athabasca, Alberta — Voice Your Thoughts and Opinions” was a buzz of activity.
“In my humble opinion, it is long overdue,” wrote councillor George Hawryluk, who voted in favour of the capital budget.
“The Hees road is only one of the examples of what this town needs to deal with. There are other infrastructure issues in the Town of Athabasca that need (a) very similar, aggressive approach by the current and future Athabasca councils in order to address them successfully, rather than pretend that they do not exist and/or hope that they will go away.”
“I am happy to see a majority of this council had the guts to make a decision and have the rubber meet the pavement, so to speak,” councillor Richard Verhaeghe wrote.
“I have been in town for 13 years and paving of the road is always being discussed but never acted on.”
Other councillors remained steadfast in their opposition.
“I did not campaign on building this road, so I think this will limit town’s ability to do other things,” councillor Paula Evans wrote.
“I’m glad those who use the road are happy,” she added.
Councillor Tim Verhaeghe noted that the Colinton highway paving decision was one single aspect of the town’s budget.
“Our good citizens should be made aware that there is lots going on with this budget,” he wrote. “While paving the road from essentially the town office to Hees Estates was one item, there are many other aspects to the budget.
“I, for one, am quite proud of it,” he added.
“I do wish there was more opportunity to get feedback,” Evans wrote. “Participatory budgeting would be a start.
“Participatory budgeting directly involves local people in making decisions on the spending and priorities for a defined public budget.”
