News | DrumhellerMail

Starland honours Reeves with Queen’s medal

    100 years is a special feat, and in December, the original “Star Land” reached that milestone.
   Starland County, as we know it, is approaching its 70th year. This was an amalgamation of the Municipal Districts of Michichi No. 277, Lambton No. 306 and Star Land No. 307 in 1943.
   The original Rural Municipality of Star Land No. 307, comprised just a fraction of the current County, and dates back to 1912.
   The County recognized this at their annual Christmas party, and took the time to recognize long term staff who served with the County and elected officials.
   “Counting our current Council members, there are only 14 living Council members who are with us at the 100 year mark,” said CAO Ross Rawlusyk at the presentation. “I’m very proud that most of these are with us here tonight, and our planning committee felt that as these elected folks are the foundation of this municipality, we wanted to recognize their contribution to Starland County.”
   The Rural Municipality of Star Land No. 307 was formed on December 9, 1912. The municipality at that time included the Morrin, Rumsey and Rowley areas. Its formational meeting was on January 6, 1913 in the schoolhouse in Rowley. Rawlusyk had the minutes from the meeting at the presentations.
   The first bylaw was a borrowing bylaw to give them money to operate. Some of the original business included searching out sites for landfills and for cemeteries. They passed a policy to castrate mongrel bulls found at large and began lobbying for a ferry west of Morrin. By April, the municipality was able to purchase three graders for a whopping $765 and four scrapers for $328.
   “By June of their first year, they were trying to get tough on the collection of taxes. Some things never change,” quipped Rawlusyk.
   Rawlusyk used the occasion to present the area’s former Reeves with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medals.
   “During the 60th anniversary year of celebrations, 60,000 deserving Canadians will be recognized. The most important criteria the medal has is that its recipient had to have made a significant contribution to a particular province, territory, region or community within Canada, or an achievement abroad that brings credit to Canada,” said Rawlusyk. “I am pleased and honoured to announce that the five individual Council members who have served as Reeves of Starland County have been accepted as recipients of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal.”
   They included Norman Stanger who served from 1982-1987, Art Grenville who served from 1990-2001, Barry McLeod who served from 2004-2007 and Barrie Hoover, who has served from 2007 to present.

Norman Stanger, centre, served as Reeve of Starland County from 1982-1987. He was presented the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal by Starland CAO Ross Rawlusyk, left, and Assistant CAO Shirley Bremer.

Art Grenville, centre, served as Reeve of Starland County from 1990-2001. He was presented the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal by Starland CAO Ross Rawlusyk, left, and Assistant CAO Shirley Bremer.

Barry McLeod, centre, served as Reeve of Starland County from 2004-2007. He was presented the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal by Starland CAO Ross Rawlusyk, left, and Assistant CAO Shirley Bremer.

Barrie Hoover centre, served as Reeve of Starland County from 2007 to the present. He was presented the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal by Starland CAO Ross Rawlusyk, left, and Assistant CAO Shirley Bremer.

RCMP search for Carbon Hall burglar

On December 31st, 2012, the Drumheller RCMP responded to a break and enter at the Carbon Community Hall wherein an undisclosed amount of money was stolen from a cash box belonging to the Carbon Lions Club. The break and enter took place between December 29th and December 31st.
Police are requesting anyone with information to contact the Drumheller RCMP at 403-823-7590 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Crime trends remain constant

    It appears that crime in Drumheller may have fallen off a bit, but Staff Sergeant Art Hopkins says the number of incidents may not be the only measure of a safe community.
   Not all crime is created equal.
   “For instance, theft of a chocolate bar, when compared to a stabbing… a stabbing would get a higher severity value. One is property, one is person crime,” said Hopkins, explaining the Crime Severity Index. “When you look at the numbers, we are seeing very little difference between 2009 and 2011.
   He said in 2010 however, the severity numbers are higher. He explains this is when the RCMP began to more actively arrest inmates involved in offenses at the Drumheller Institution.
   “This was the first year we started working up at the pen full-time,” he said.
   In many cases, offenses in an institutional setting, such as assaults, were higher on the severity index and they reflect the numbers for all of Drumheller.
   “Ultimately, we are pretty consistent, save for 2010, but all in all it hasn’t changed a lot,” said Hopkins.
   He adds that since the police have been more active at the institution, instances of crime numbers have also dropped.
   “When you see the numbers they are pretty much the same, but technically we have dropped,” he said.
   When looking at the crime severity index, Alberta in 2011 remains about 10 points higher than the national average, but lowest in the four western provinces.
   Drumheller, when compared with like-sized Alberta communities appeared to come up about average. Whitecourt, Banff and Edson are higher, while Innisfail and Sylvan Lake are lower.
   Along with a package of crime severity, Hopkins also presented the year-to-date incident numbers to Drumheller Town Council. Overall numbers appear to be consistent and do not reveal any particular trend.
   Hopkins says one area where the numbers are much higher is traffic, and that is all related to enforcement.
   “This was the first summer where we had more staff … and we’ve done a lot in terms of traffic enforcement,” said Hopkins.
   Provincial traffic enforcement is up 75.7 per cent from January to October. There were 1,854 incidents, compared to 1,055 in the same time period the year before.
   “Our accidents are down. With increased enforcement, generally that is what happens. The reason is people slow down when we are more visible—people drive more respectfully,” said Hopkins.
He said the one priority and concern going forward continues to be fraud.
   “That is a crime group where we can be proactive as opposed to reactive in many instances. The more people talk about it the better, because every time you tell a story about a new way people are trying to separate you from your money, other people learn from it,” said Hopkins. “We have had way more attempts, but fewer successes of people getting conned out of their money.”

Subcategories

Page 2613 of 3480

More Articles ...

Subcategories