The social media crowd may tell you otherwise, but things in Westlock are pretty good.
Of course there are issues, there is crime, as there is in any town and the empty malls aren’t necessarily anything to brag about, but another indicator of an urban municipality’s success is the amount of development taking place within its borders and on that front Westlock is doing just fine from what we can see.
In a week where we have serious crimes and tragedy on the highway on our front page, our story about local development in this week’s issue, is a positive one and the town’s interim CAO Simone Wiley said there is reason to be optimistic.
We can’t disagree.
There is at least one house going up; Westgate Developments has been given the go-ahead to build two new subdivisions, one commercial, one residential; Westlock Collision Centre just reopened in its new building; we’re getting a Dairy Queen, which is well underway; and The Brick is expanding into a newly constructed building. All of these will stimulate the local economy with jobs and spur more growth, which is every municipality’s mandate after all.
There are things happening. We are not stagnant, as many armchair quarterbacks are apt to imply.
There are even several recently-opened and soon-to-be-opened businesses that are providing new jobs within the community. Of course they sell cannabis, but we’re not here to judge. Some stores sell food, some clothes, some doo-dads and hicka-ma-bobs. And some sell cannabis and cannabis accessories. Any legitimate entrepreneur that chooses to set up shop in your town should be welcomed.
Aside from that, but also on the business front, the newly re-formed Westlock and District Chamber of Commerce, is starting to advocate on behalf of, and bring local businesses together under one umbrella to explore their mutual needs. More and more businesses, large and small, are signing up every day. Hey, maybe the cannabis stores will consider joining once they’ve got their feet under them.
Growth comes slowly, but over the course of 20 years, the face of a municipality can change drastically. Think of all that has changed in this town since the turn of the century.
Some of that change can be easy to swallow, some of it a little more controversial, but any development is good development and will only contribute to our future success.
