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The year of economic challenges

The Village of Boyle was able to overcome economic adversity in 2017 thanks to good planning, said Mayor Colin Derko.

The Village of Boyle was able to overcome economic adversity in 2017 thanks to good planning, said Mayor Colin Derko.

In an interview reviewing the village's last year, Derko praised the fiscal responsibility of previous councils in helping the village get through the closure of the Millar Western sawmill. Although the closure was first announced in 2015, Derko said the process took time and 2017 was the first full fiscal year without that tax base.

“We were able to overcome a lot of the adversity with a lot of good things in town and a lot of projects done,” Derko said. “All in all, considering the economy and what's been going on and everything that's been happening in the province, it was a very positive year.”

However, the mill site will not go unused, as National Recycling Inc. (NRI) purchased the mill from Northland Forest Products in 2017 for redevelopment, with plans to employ people in Boyle.

“So far so good,” Derko said about the development. “With NRI coming in, it's helped a little bit.”

Derko also highlighted area infrastructure improvements at both the municipal and provincial levels. He noted the municipality completed several major paving projects and village staff is also nearing completion on upgrading water and gas meters throughout town.

“That was a big undertaking. We got all of our water and gas meter readings all up to date. It's still ongoing, they're just finishing that all up,” Derko said.

The mayor also praised the provincial investment in Boyle, with the local hospital getting millions in upgrades and the Wildrose Villa seniors facility nearing completion.

“We got that beautiful new building in town thanks to the provincial help and the help of our MLA,” Derko said.

The village should also see ground broken on a new spray park in 2018, Derko said, offering praise to the Greater Athabasca Community Foundation (GACF) for its fundraising efforts on the project.

“Worked extremely hard to get funds built up so they can start this project. They'll probably break ground here in 2018,” Derko said. “They got some municipal help from the village and from the county. So that's a positive.”

Boyle was also visited in April by Doug Griffiths, who presented to the village about “13 Ways to Kill Your Community.”

Derko said the interest in the presentation, and a steering committee that formed afterward, helped show people still care about Boyle.

“It just realigns everybody's way of thinking,” Derko said, adding Boyle had seen a lot of struggle with the economy and mill closure. “It was nice to see the community obviously cares and is obviously very strong. 99 per cent of the problem is, you need to have involvement and you need to have people that care.”

Looking ahead to 2018, Derko said the challenge will be what many communities still face: the economy.

“The provincial economy is on a bit of a bubble. Things are looking good for sure, but without a strong economy, it's tough for anybody. It's tough for our business community, which then makes it tough for our residents,” Derko said.

However, things are getting better as the village works to move past the mill closure, Derko added, highlighting that the local chamber of commerce seems to be strengthening.

“In the past, it was really easy to focus on the bad,” Derko said. “Now, the focus seems to be on moving forward and making things better.”

One of the village council's bigger priorities in the new year is working on relationships with other local councils, Derko said. The village held a joint meeting with Athabasca County Jan. 10 and he said his council was extremely happy with how it went.

“We are very interested and very excited to work with the county council on moving forward, making the entire county a better place for all of us,” Derko said. “Even though we have three municipalities within our county, from a provincial standpoint, we are the county. We want to make sure we all work together to make it a better county.”

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