While the Town of Westlock secured a grant to cover the $8.9 Eastglen Water Tower replacement and inked a deal that should lead to a pair of developments, mayor Ralph Leriger said 2017 will be the year the community stood out by hosting numerous events including the nationally-televised Boston Pizza Cup.
“It was a busy year. One of the key parts of our strategic plan was to host mini-conferences and events to draw people to town for the economic benefit and to use our facilities to their maximum capacity,” he said.
“I had to think back to the curling playdowns and remind myself that was this year. That’s how busy we were.”
Infrastructure projects also topped his list, in particular the work on the Westgate Business Park and Greenfield Estates and getting approval from the federal government for the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund to cover half of the $8.9 million initial estimate to replace the 49-year-old Eastglen water tower with an underground reservoir.
Leriger was also pleased with the town’s work on its asset management plan, which maps out the age, condition and locations of water, sewer and other underground infrastructure and inputs them into a geographical information survey.
Bringing in new businesses to the town, some new restaurants and a motorcycle-specific mechanic shop was also encouraging.
In addition to hosting the provincial men’s curling championships — the biggest single sporting event ever held in town — Westlock also hosted to the North Central Alberta Baseball League 50th anniversary gala and semifinal, the Alberta Developers Conference, the Rotary District 5370 conference and the Alberta Urban Municipality Association’s fall councillor training sessions.
Another big celebration was the 50th anniversary of Westlock Family and Community Support Services. Leriger noted that Westlock was among the first communities to have such a service and that it was important to recognize the organization.
“It’s something our whole region should be proud of. One key plank of our strategic plan is that we need to celebrate our successes,” he said.
“It’s easy to focus on the problems, but celebrating is a big part of a community as well.”
Challenges for 2018 include securing funding for major projects and ensuring good teamwork between municipalities. Leriger noted that the town had accomplished great things in partnerships, such as the St. Mary playground and the new handi-bus.
He said he was looking at other challenges, such as the town taking over the costs of its contract with the RCMP, as an opportunity.
“It’s a chance to provide direct feedback to the community’s policing priorities,” he said. “We’ve already passed some bylaws to set up a policing committee and soon we will be looking for volunteers to sit on it.”
One area Leriger wants to get started on quickly was finding someone to fill outgoing CAO Dean Krause’s shoes.
On his wish list, Leriger said top of mind was an application the town has put in for the Alberta Community Resilience Program. If approved, the multi-year grant could cover 90 per cent engineering and construction costs for up to $3 million and 70 per cent of costs in excess of that.
The grant would help the town upgrade its storm drain system to minimize the amount of overland flooding the region has been experiencing in recent years.
“We need that grant. Now that our storm water modeling is done, that will help us understand what we need to do first to manage storm water.
If we’re successful in receiving that grant it will help us fund some of the work as well.”
