Westlock News

Westlock County amended its current fire ban May 25 to include the use of off-highway vehicles, exploding shooting targets and fireworks on Crown land as a means of preventing further wildfires.

The bridge over Shoal Creek on Range Road 21 north of Township Road 614 is permanently closed after Westlock County officials deemed it unsafe.

As part of a bid to grow local communities, Pembina Hills Public Schools (PHPS) is offering a $2,500 incentive to all new and existing staff if they move into the division’s geographic area.

Township Road 635 and Range Road 20 is in severe need of an overhaul as a May 8 delegation to Westlock County council called it the worst road in the municipality.

Bevin McNelly is fed up.

The Town of Westlock has followed Westlock County’s lead and issued a complete fire ban within municipal limits. The town declared the ban at 10:30 a.m.

There has been little movement in the town and county’s disagreement over library funding during the last several months, leaving the board wondering whether it will be able to keep the facility’s doors open.

Following the massive Echo Lake fire over the weekend, Westlock County has instituted a complete fire ban. Enacted at 9:30 a.m. May 14, the ban means no open fires are allowed within the municipality.

An investigation is now underway following a sprawling, but now under control, 150-hectare blaze that started near Echo Lake on Township Road 592A Saturday afternoon.

A 38-kilometre section of Highway 44 south of Westlock will be repaved this summer at a cost of $21.5 million, but the stretch in front of and the new turning lanes into the Westlock County Industrial Park will wait at least another year.