While Lac La Biche County councillors discuss updates to the Land Use Bylaw relating to unsightly premises, they're trying to clean up some of their own municipal eyesores as well.
Tall grass and general neglect greets visitors to the community's main entrances, says Lac La Biche County Mayor Paul Reutov. And although main entrances to the hamlets of Lac La Biche and Plamondon are on Alberta highways, Reutov says municipal muscle should be used to fix things up.
"If we are going to wait for the province to do it, it's going to be a mess all the time," said the mayor, giving the go-ahead last week for municipal crews to take on the projects. "We cannot continue ignoring it — it's an overgrown mess."
The mayor said it's a simple as pulling out a map and circling an area at each road entrance that will be cut, cleaned and maintained. If he was drawing the map, Reutov said he would identify long stretches of roadway leading into the communities, not just around entrance signs. He said knee-high grass and weeds in the ditches west of Lac La Biche to Lac La Biche Transport need to be addressed. The same with the roadsides from the Plamondon 4-Corners intersection on Highway 55 into Plamondon.
"It's a mess, and that's the first thing people see. It's time to put the taxpayers' money to work," he said.
Lac La Biche County's associate CAO of Infrastructure Brian Shapka said with a smile that his counterparts at Alberta Transportation would likely not have any issues with someone else doing their work. He also said the municipality could explore ways to bill the province for any work done by County staff or contracted services.
Shapka said municipal staff and contractors do "a couple" of cuts a year along provincial highways near the hamlets, but more could be added to the annual maintenance schedule.
Councillor Jason Stedman said municipal administrators will begin tracking the costs of the additional clean-up items, so increases to the municipal mowing budgets can be re-evaluated next year.
Reutov was pleased the issue would be addressed without too much debate and red-tape.
"We don't want to be debating lawn-moving for years," he said.
