ATHABASCA – There's a new top cop in Athabasca.
Staff Sgt. Mark Hall is a 15-year veteran of the RCMP and comes to Athabasca via the McLennan and Peace River detachments. He has been in town for nearly a month and has been spending time getting familiar with issues and the people in the community, including a visit to Athabasca town council Sept. 21.
“In McLennan, I spent quite a bit of time working with the community and that's kind of where my focus here is going to be, rebuilding some trust within the community,” he told council.
Coun. Rob Balay and Coun. Dave Pacholok had already met the new detachment commander, who spoke at a meeting held by the Athabasca Community Opportunities and Protection (ACOP) group that met in-person for the first time Sept. 14 and drew about 40 people. ACOP has been active on Facebook for about a year and was formed as a virtual meeting place where concerned citizens could share news about local crimes, keep each other informed and talk about solutions to the problems the community is facing on that front.
The councillors asked Hall to reiterate some of the things that were discussed at that meeting including becoming more prominent in the community and re-introducing some form of youth anti-drug awareness program like the old DARE initiative.
Hall said there is a program in development that is currently in the piloting phase that he is looking into, and that he is looking forward to getting into the schools with his members to interact with the younger generation.
“We definitely want to get back into schools in one shape or form … I know I spoke to the principal of the high school here recently, and he is more than in favour and having us back into schools,” he said.
Coun. Tannia Cherniwchan related that she saw the DARE program in action as a public-school teacher and thought it was “absolutely fantastic. So, it's exciting that you are willing to bring that back and kudos to you and good luck in all that you do for our community,” she said.
That’s one of the partnerships Hall said he plans to make, another being with the communities and municipalities the detachment polices. On that note, Coun. Balay also noted he was encouraged to hear from representatives from Calling Lake and the M.D. of Opportunity who also spoke at the ACOP meeting to talk about issues they were facing north of Athabasca.
Mayor Colleen Powell said she was hoping to see partnerships with other agencies in the community as well.
“I'm hoping the next council can work with the RCMP and the other agencies that are dealing with a pretty critical change in our community over the last five years and find out what we can do, because we don't have a lot of tools in our tool chest. What can we do outside of that, that might be of use to you and might help alleviate some of these issues you do have?” she asked.
“I'm definitely going to be looking at partnering with the social systems like addiction services, mental health, things like that. We're going to deal with a bunch of issues if we all work in a partnership with the different communities, as well with the M.D. and with the county,” Hall said. “I'll be working with those guys to kind of bring everybody together to help to work on some issues as well because they overflow from Athabasca into these other areas and then they flow back here, so we need to get on board with everybody and make it better. Let's start to clean up some of the mess that was created.”
Hall said there are currently 19 members and staff at the detachment, which puts it just out of reach for qualifying for a re-organization, which he hopes would include the addition of a sergeant position that would help the detachment from an operational perspective.
“But you're still dealing with an area the size of Luxembourg,” said Powell. “I'm sure we can promise the next council will work with you quite well and advocate on your behalf if you need to get your sergeant.”
