BARRHEAD-Bill Lane believes he still has something to contribute to the County of Barrhead.
That and the fact that he still has a passion for municipal politics is why he decided to run for re-election for the County of Barrhead Division 4. Division 4 includes the area west of Range Road 40, also known as autowreckers road, south of Township Road 590 and includes parts of Highway 33.
Lane has been the councillor for the area since 2001. He is the third candidate to announce their intentions to run for the seat, the others being Ivan Kusal and Amanda Lambert.
History
However, Lane and his family have lived in the area much longer than that. The Lane family moved to the County of Barrhead in the mid-1950s from Wainwright.
Lane's parents, Earl and Jessie, met in Victoria, B.C., during the Second World War. Eventually, they would move to Wainwright, where Lane was born before moving to Wetaskiwin and then moving to Barrhead, where he would complete high school.
"They were professional people," he said, adding his father was a pharmacist and his mother, a registered nurse.
The pair owned and operated Lane Drug Store.
Eventually, Lane would open a pair of restaurants, one a spaghetti and pizza house in the location of his father's old drugstore (now B-Town's) the other, Billy Bob's Burger Bar (now Sal's Famous) after working for four years in Hinton, driving large coal trucks, before returning to Barrhead and working various jobs, including at working on the Agricultural Services Board spray crew. He also drove school bus for both the Swan Hills and Barrhead school divisions prior to their ammalgamation.
Lane said he and his family have a long history at Thunder Lake, starting in 1958, with the construction of his parent’s first cottage. Since then four generations of the Lane family have been part of the Thunder Lake community, including Lane and his wife, Ester, who have been married for 46 years and have nine grandchildren.
Lane originally decided to run for office partly because he had always been interested in politics and as a way to give back to the community.
"At both of our restaurants, we had a good clientele both from the town and county that supported us for many years, so when I learned the councillor for the division was retiring, I thought what better way to do it," he said.
Economic development
One of his main focuses from day one in office, Lane said, has been economic development, adding it is probably more important now than when he was first elected.
"Barrhead, especially the county, is an agriculture-based municipality and the last five or six years have been hard on farmers," Lane said.
Currently, the Agricultural Services Board (ASB) is contemplating declaring a state of agricultural disaster. If it does so, it will be the fifth time in recent years that the County of Barrhead has made such a declaration. In 2016, 2017, and 2019 the county made the declaration due to wet conditions and flooding, while in 2020, dry conditions were the culprit.
One of the ways he and the county have attempted to attract businesses to the region is through GROWTH Alberta.
GROWTH Alberta is one of the province’s nine Regional Economic Development Alliances (REDA). In the mid-1990s, the Alberta government decided there needed to be more coordination between several ad hoc community alliances. Its purpose is to create economic growth through marketing.
Although Lane said GROWTH is a valuable organization and one he has been on the board of, one of its potential limitations is the number of communities it represents.
"When it comes to bringing in businesses, all the communities have a vested interest and want to bring it to their municipality first," he said, adding which is one of the reasons why the county created its own Economic Development Committee (EDC).
"It has worked pretty well for us. We sold our first lot [at the Kiel Industrial Park] to Royal Canadian Cannabis (RCC)," he said.
In late June 2018, they announced that they would be building its facility medical marijuana growing facility in Barrhead, after purchasing the first lot at the county's industrial park.
Unfortunately, Lane said, the sale of the lot wasn't finalized after RCC backed out of the deal after failing to secure funding.
However, he said, the county is actively pursuing other businesses and industries, especially from the agriculture sector.
"I am excited to say that we have received a down payment on a lot from [a company] thatdeals with agricultural products and that could attract other businesses to the park," Lane said. "It is in their hands now, but we are hopeful that it will be finalized and with it bring more employment opportunities to our community."
Thunder Lake issues
He is also excited about the potential that fish could return to Thunder Lake, noting the lake was chosen for a pike and perch fish relocation.
"Thunder Lake was a great fishing lake for years. There was a 40-pound pike taken out of this lake and people would catch five-six inch perch daily," Lane said.
However, at least 10 years ago, two successive "fish kill" years decimated the fish stock.
"I remember the county coming in with front-end loaders and scooping buckets of fish to truck off and bury," he said.
Lane said as a decades-long Thunder Lake resident, he also has a firm grasp of the issues at the lake.
One of the latest being residents adjacent to the county's municipal public reserve lands bordering the lake treating it as an extension of their property.
In the spring of 2019, the county documented more than 400 violations. In response, in the summer the county held an information session for area residents at packed Lightning Bay Community Hall as part of the process to create a lake strategic plan, a process that is not complete.
"We are currently working on a lake management plan and are dealing with both the federal and provincial governments and Alberta Environment and Parks, which does not make for a quick solution," he said.
Other projects and challenges
Lane added he also hopes that it will be possible to extend the waterline to construct a truck fill station at Campsie, saying several years ago the county was ready to proceed with the project, but it was stymied after the province cancelled its Water for Life grant funding program.
"[The planning] is shovel ready, should funding become available," he said.
Lane said the current council understands the economic strain many residents are feeling, thanks to the downturn of the economy, lower commodity prices in the energy sector and then the pandemic, which is why they have tried to keep tax increases to a minimum, freezing the mill rate for the past two years.
"It's been tough. A big stumbling block for the county is the loss of $1.4 million as the result of oil businesses going bankrupt," he said, adding it comes at a time when municipalities are being forced to do more with less.
He specifically pointed to the province cutting municipalities Municipal Sustainability Initiative grant funding and ASB funding while at the same time asking them to contribute more to policing.
However, despite the challenges, Lane hopes he will be able to continue to serve.
"I am passionate about my job and take my role very seriously. I like talking to people, helping them with their issues and directing their inquiries to the right departments," he said. "If re-elected I will commit my time and energy to keep the county vibrant, strong and fiscally responsible and remain a strong voice for Divison 4."
