Town of Penhold Mayor Mike Yargeau acknowledges the community's strong bond carrying them through a challenging year.

By Alessia Proietti

Mayor Mike Yargeau

Strength in stability: a year in review with Penhold’s mayor

Jan 1, 2022 | 10:00 AM

Not much changed in 2021 for the Town of Penhold, according to Mayor Mike Yargeau, but the community’s morale remains strong.

Yargeau described the past 12 months as being, “a lot like the nine months before that.”

“It was tough again as a community. We shut down our facilities again; we opened them back up,” he said. “It’s been long.”

The mayor explains the community’s foundation is heavily based on congregation.

“We build a lot of our community spirit around coming together and having events like the Fall Festival or our community Christmas that we usually do.”

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“We’re sort of coming up with new ways to do things together as a community, which has been good and bad.”

While the challenge may have shaken the town’s foundation, the mayor acknowledges that it did not break their bond.

“We have such a great community here and we’ve been lucky to avoid some of the things that you see in other municipalities,” he said. “We haven’t had staff getting abuse over decisions that are out of our control.”

He expressed understanding for those who are struggling and gratitude for the resiliency.

“I would say some residents are maybe getting impatient or upset at how this is dragging out, and I can’t say I blame them either. Everyone is frustrated to a certain point,” he says.

“My biggest thing over the last year would just be to say thank you to everyone for being there for us and going through this with us.”

In the spirit of unity, one thing the town is particularly proud of in 2021 is its completion of the new skate park and pump track, containing ramps and pipes for bikers and skateboarders. Mayor Yargeau pegs it as a “unique facility” in Alberta.

He believes the town’s tenacity and community strength to keep moving forward may pay off even more in 2022.

Without revealing many details, he alluded to multiple announcements set to be made in the new year for commercial and recreational plans.

“We’ve done a lot of work building some projects that you’re going to see come to fruition this year.”

While 2021 may have found strength in stability, the resolution for 2022, Yargeau says, should be to keep moving forward.

“I see things continuing onward and upward in Penhold. We’ve got a lot of exciting things happening behind the scenes and sort of out in public to push our community forward and continue growing and attracting more businesses,” he says. “I think we’ve got a really great year ahead of us.”