BARRHEAD - Shae Guy, the County of Barrhead's new community peace officer (CPO), has had a busy first few months.
Guy joined the municipality in mid-December. Before his arrival, the county contracted out its bylaw enforcement duties to various surrounding communities, the latest being Morinville.
In addition to getting the municipality’s bylaw program up and running, he said among the projects taking up his time is his work with the Pembina Hills School Division, specifically on working with the division on creating public messaging to slow drivers down when passing through school zones.
"We are also doing a lot of work with the school division to curb the amount of school bus fly-bys," he said.
Guy said he is also working with the public works department to improve speed limit signage, especially in and near school zones.
Guy is working with administration to bring forward future bylaws for council's consideration, including animal control, community standards, parking and off-highway vehicle use, and special events bylaws. The municipality has been working on the latter since 2017, while the animal control and community standards bylaws are nearly ready to go before council. He noted he is also working with development officer Jenny Bruns to update the county's municipal public reserves bylaw.
Also on the CPO's to-do list is creating a livestock emergency plan and working with the county manager to aid Barrhead and District Community Support Services (FCSS) in creating an emergency social services (ESS) plan in the event of potential evacuations, such as the ones experienced last summer when the Barrhead FCSS was tasked with opening a reception centre for Swan Hills evacuees.
Deputy reeve Marvin Schatz asked how the public has received Guy at the various community events he has attended, such as Coffee with a Cop, which he attended with members of the Barrhead RCMP, the land-use public information session, and the Lac La Nonne Enhancement and Protection Association (LEPA) fishing derby.
"It's been really positive," Guy replied. "[The county's community peace officer/bylaw enforcement department] program is relatively new, but the general response is that they are pleased that we are doing our own enforcement."
However, he noted some of his interactions with the public have been limited at these events, as the focus wasn't on county enforcement.
Files in 2024
From January to April 30, Guy has actioned 286 files, of which 17 remain open and are still under investigation.
The files under investigation mostly revolve around land-use issues and unsightly property.
The two most notable open files include an individual with 15 dogs and an unsightly premises — the old Camp Creek General Store.
"There were a bunch of complaints in 2023 about excessive barking and dogs running at large," he said.
"It was a really bad situation. The property owner could not afford to feed and care for the dogs properly and was unsuccessful in rehousing them," Guy said
He added that, with the help of the Barrhead Animal Rescue Society (BARS) and the Alberta SPCA, they have rehomed 11 dogs and are working on finding homes for one more.
As for the long-abandoned old Camp Creek General Store,
Guy has been working with legal counsel in Court of King's bench to demolish the associated buildings but said the process has been complicated as the former property owner is deceased and has no heirs.
As for the breakdown, most (235) involve offences under the Traffic Safety Act.
"Anything from speeding to overweight vehicle complaints is why that number is so high; it includes many things," he said.
The next highest categories are assisting various other county departments, at 20; animal control and land-use bylaw complaints, at 15 each; community standards bylaw complaints, at 13; assisting the RCMP and school event patrols at 10 each; and unsightly property complaints at eight round of the top categories.
Most of the complaints were self-generated, in that Guy observed the violations, while 59 came from the public.
He said he expects the latter to increase as more residents become aware of the county's new complaint line, 780-284-9757, which is monitored 24 hours a day.
The amount from the tickets handed out amounts to $26,406, while the amount, if from warnings, if converted to tickets, amounts to $40,869. It is worth noting that the province takes 40 per cent of traffic tickets, overdue parking tickets and other fines.
Some of the more notable speeding offences include a driver clocked going 151 km/h in a 90 km/h zone on Township Road 594 near the cemeteries and a driver going 104 km/h in a 50 km/h zone on Range Road 40. Guy also observed a driver going 106 km/h in a school zone on Highway 651 in front of Dunstable School.
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