Crime has declined in the Village of Boyle.
So states Boyle’s annual performance plan, presented by RCMP Cpl. Sonny Kim during last Wednesday’s council meeting. It revealed that overall, crime had declined in the community in 2010.
Though this is certainly good news for the village, Kim pointed out that there was an upward trend in a few specific offenses, such as thefts from vehicles, vandalism, domestic violence and impaired driving.
A silver lining does exist, however, with a 100-per-cent charge rate on domestic violence cases and a drop in traffic fatalities in relation to impaired driving incidences.
Kim outlined some of the RCMP’s upcoming initiatives for the community of Boyle, which included check-stops in and around the village targeting the transportation of dangerous goods; seatbelt, speeding, stop sign and insurance checks; the implementation of quad education sessions in the schools and for the public, which will also include a quad blitz in the surrounding area; and the return of Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), scheduled to speak with Grade 6 students.
Kim stressed that drugs were a ‘minor concern’ in the Boyle school system.
Boyle’s sanitary lift station is currently operating on one motor and must be manually pumped twice a week to remove low-lying wastewater.
A sanitary lift station uses pumps, valves and electrical equipment to pump wastewater from a low-level area to a higher elevation.
Village superintendent of public works Dennis Tomuschat reported that a check valve had failed on the station, and that he had found mop heads jammed in the pumps.
Tomuschat put forward two tenders for council to consider – the first, to purchase new motors for the lift station, and the second was to re-cast the existing pumps – emphasizing the importance of getting the repairs done immediately.
The superintendent also intends to upgrade the lift station’s flow rates to enable it to accommodate a community population of 1,500, as opposed to the 1,200 it can now.
Council voted in favour of the first tender, to purchase new motors without delay.
Boyle Mayor Don Radmanovich was caught by surprise when council voted in favour of rescinding a prior motion to ban the use of business signs within the village that were of a permanent nature.
“We just opened up a can of worms,” Radmanovich said after the vote. “We have to now define permanent.”
Councillor David Bencharsky, who felt it was acceptable to have some signs erected as long as they weren’t bothering anybody, brought the issue forward.
Acting CAO Elly Zeggelaar specified that the past motion was intended for “signs on Railway that were permanent … dug-in business signs.”
“The ones in question have been there four, five years,” Radmanovich added, saying they should ‘stick with the past motion.’
The previous motion did not ‘stick,’ however, and business signs are allowed, once again, to be placed on village property.
Boyle’s truck fill system has been updated and can now hold 400 accounts, doubling that of the previous amount.
Nine new accounts have been activated since the upgrade.
The date of council’s public information meeting has been changed from Apr. 7 and will now be held on Apr. 11 at 7 p.m.
The change was made to avoid conflict with the Travis Tritt concert at the Athabasca Regional Multiplex.
The meeting is intended to answer questions and concerns regarding utility prices and the village budget.
