ATHABASCA - Since gaining the certification to enforce provincial statutes, Town of Athabasca peace officer Brian Bandura is spending a lot of his time doing just that — especially in school zones and at stop signs.
Bandura presented his monthly report to Athabasca town councillors at their Oct. 20 meeting, for the time between Sept. 10 to Oct. 10, where he attended 42 occurrences, 28 of which included issuing provincial citations, and more than 20 of those were for moving violations.
“The bylaw occurrences were down, but we ended up getting some additional provincial traffic safety occurrences down. A few warnings were also issued asking people to be a little more attentive to their piece of the road, their equipment and their vehicle," he told council.
“A few things I stress to people, places we’ve got to watch are stop signs and school zones. Those are problem areas and motorists need to be attentive to those two areas."
He said he handed out 22 tickets for speeding and six more for other Traffic Safety Act violations prompting Coun. Rob Balay to ask how often Bandura issues a warning versus a ticket.
“I would probably say that about 40 per cent of the time I issue a warning and 60 per cent of the time I’ll issue a ticket,” he said.
The report also showed there were also four occurrences regarding the town's Animal Control Bylaw — three for dogs that were either roaming free or nuisance barking; and one for a cat on the loose.
He also responded to two instances related to fire — once to assist the fire department, RCMP and the fire investigator — and once to inspect a fire pit and issue a fire permit.
Twice he assisted RCMP — once with a Traffic Safety Act investigation and then again for a report of an individual starting fires on town property.
There were also three unsightly properties; a call related to damaged property at the skate park for a plastic bin damaged by fire; one occurrence of petty trespassing and vagrancy; and one derelict motor vehicle parked on private property.
Heather Stocking, TownandCountryToday.com
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