WESTLOCK – For the first time in years, Westlock County will host a series of open houses this summer as councillors want to “hear any concerns or ideas” ratepayers have.
Councillors agreed unanimously at their March 28 regular meeting to select Busby, June 12, Tawatinaw, June 14, Vimy, June 15, and Jarvie, June 20, as the sites for the gatherings which are the first for the current council since the 2021 municipal election and the hiring of CAO Tony Kulbisky in August 2022 — all will run from 5 to 7 p.m. at the community halls in each hamlet, while the Tawatinaw event will be held at the ski hill chalet.
In his presentation, Kulbisky said the agenda for each will include a short, five-minute presentation from various staffers on what their department does and any new initiatives for this current year including an overview of council’s “newly minted” strategic plan — each venue will be set up in a “trade-show fashion” to allow residents to mingle with staff.
“The idea is to have the residents come in with their questions or wanting to know more information and when they head home, they’ll have some pamphlets and that information,” said Kulbisky, who foresees the events lasting around two hours each. “I’m thinking out loud, but maybe it will be a carnival-like idea and the different booths will have fun activities for the kids to do. We’ve even thought about maybe a passport idea where people can get stamps at each booth and at the conclusion, they put their name on the ballot and then we do a draw.”
While administration had originally proposed three events, councillors pushed for four with Coun. Stuart Fox-Robinson noting that “trying to keep everyone happy will be difficult” and that “no one need feel that they’re being left out of this.” Kulbisky, who endorsed having a fourth meeting, said that the events will be a “great opportunity” to tell the story about council’s new strategic plan and “it’s important we commit to your strat plan and try to get out and work with the people that we’re serving.”
“I think it will be nice to have one at the chalet in Tawatinaw and I think at the one we can give an update on how things are operating there and maybe some of the construction on the magic carpet will be taking place … maybe, maybe not, but at least some of the groundwork. And I think that will draw some more people,” added Coun. Isaac Skuban. “I’ll do my best to get my residents out to any location.”
All seven councillors confirmed they’ll attend the events, even if they aren’t in their divisions — as it stands the open houses are pegged for divisions 1, 2, 5 and 6.
“I just hope we have more attendance. We have seven at one of the (past) open houses and five of them were Stitsens, along with a few other people,” said Coun. Jared Stitsen.
“I hope we get some good turnouts. It would be wonderful for residents to come out and be a part of it,” added reeve Christine Wiese.
In the lead-up, the county will also be contacting Westlock Family and Community Support Services and Citizens on Patrol reps to see if they want to be included, while councillors balked at featuring local businesses at the gathering, with Fox-Robinson adding “ … I don’t know if it fits with the event itself.”
“FCSS coming will be good. I think there’s a still lot of people in the county who don’t know about FCSS and all of the services it offers,” he said.
