By Sheldon Spackman

much accomplished despite challenging times

Reeve applauds Lacombe County’s achievements in 2020

Dec 23, 2020 | 2:32 PM

The reeve of Lacombe County is describing 2020 as an “in spite of” type of year.

Paula Law says that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the county was still able to accomplish quite a bit of good over the past 12 months.

“Throughout this year we continued to grow our relationships with our neighbouring municipalities through the successful completion of and execution of all of the required IDPs (Intermunicipal Development Plans) and ICFs (Intermunicipal Collaborative Frameworks),” says Law. “We had 15 of those to do and we finished those all on time.”

Law says Lacombe County was also able to complete all of the servicing under the west side of the QE2 at Highway 12 near Lacombe, helped upgrade the Hanes Hall, installed a new playground in Mirror, made improvements to the Alix Arena, and contributed to the current expansion of the Blackfalds Multi-Plex.

She says Lacombe County has also been able to continue its ongoing support of non-for-profit agencies that provide much-needed community support services, especially during the pandemic.

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“Our Emergency Coordination Centre did an excellent job in responding to this COVID crisis,” Law suggested. “They kept us informed and they kept us safe, which helped keep us healthy.”

Law further notes that council is especially proud and appreciative to all of county staff as well.

“They managed to maintain our roads, repair and replace bridges, complete our mowing program, kept our beaches, boat launches and recreational areas operational and open to the public,” adds Law.

“There were new computer systems installed, complex intermunicipal plans were developed, we continued to protect our infrastructure and environment and all along while doing their day-to-day functions and assisting ratepayers and the public, all while dealing with COVID.”

Law adds that, “Through all of this, we adjusted when and where we needed and we remained fully operational throughout the year. We did not close any of our beaches, our boat launches or any of our recreational areas.”

She says Lacombe County, in fact, has not had to close anything during the pandemic or lay-off any staff.

“We were able to keep everybody going and try to keep things as usual and the same as much as we could. We don’t have as many facilities as the urban municipalities, so that helped us immensely. We didn’t have to close anything like that.”

Looking ahead to 2021, Law says the county will be focused on business as usual as much as possible.

She points out that the county’s road construction program and capital equipment replacement plan will both continue, and notes that their interim budget currently contains no property tax increase next year.

“We still have to wait for all the final numbers to come in, but we’ll do whatever we can to try and maintain that at zero.”