Suzanne Oel – Division 4
Happy New Year!
2025 Events – Please mark these dates in your calendar! I am working with County departments and community groups to set-up and host some informative events in 2025, which I hope you may find interesting and attend. Please mark these three dates, below, in your calendar for now. Planning is still underway, so I will confirm more details in my upcoming High Country News articles and share via social media.
High Country Rural Crime Watch Association (HCRCWA) AGM: Mark your calendar for Thursday, March 13, 2025, 7 pm, at the Priddis Community Hall. The HCRCWA will hold a short AGM followed by a presentation + Q&A session with our local Diamond Valley RCMP Detachment representatives. Topics will be shared soon. I continue to work along side our dedicated volunteer board members as the HCRCWA volunteer president. We appreciate our partnership with RCMP members and look forward to hearing from residents at this event. More details soon.
Wildlife Co-existence Workshop: Mark your calendar for Tuesday, April 8, 2025, 7 pm, at the Priddis Community Hall. Foothills County and Alberta Environment departments are collaborating to provide presenters and are teaming up with local community associations and HCRCWA to host this Wildlife Coexistence Workshop. We hope to include these topics: wildlife species awareness, conflict-reduction strategies, managing the local Elk situation, recognizing invasive species, and Q&A with presenters. All to be confirmed soon.
Chainsaw and Tree Safety Workshop: Mark your calendar for Tuesday, May 6, 2025, 7 pm, at the Priddis Community Hall. Foothills County will be connecting us with subject matter experts so we can learn some safety tips on dealing with our west country treed properties. Again, this event will be a collaboration of guest presenters, County departments and community groups. Whether its seasonal clean-up, clearing a treed area, pushing back the tree growth to FireSmart around buildings, or responding to the deadfall of a windstorm, tree management is required every year. We hope to include these topics: safe chainsaw use, understanding tree dynamics, how to approach a clean-up, and Q&A with presenters. The focus of our meeting will be education presentations and discussions with residents. Tools will not be used by residents. All to be confirmed soon.
Dark Sky Country Signs stolen again: Two Dark Sky Country signs were literally ripped-off this past month at the Highway 22X locations of 85 St/144 St W and 176 St W. We have tried various methods of secure fastening, but the County continues to experience the loss of our Dark Sky Country signs and other traffic signs. Some of our road signs are up for as short a time as two weeks, before the culprit(s) notice and steal them. With a cost to replace and install signs at around $200 each, this really adds up. There’s a cost to our taxpayers and the volunteers who have fundraised for the Dark Sky Country signs, and there’s the issue of safety risk to motorists when the traffic signs such as stop signs or animal warning signs are removed. It is quite disheartening when the only visible means of sharing our Dark Sky Initiative, through this signage, is stolen. The County has reported these losses to RCMP. If you see or hear of anything regarding this problem, please report to the RCMP’s 24/7 complaints line 403.933.4262, and the Foothills County Complaints Line 403.603.6300. If you see our signs in someone’s home/garage/shop, ask them to please return the signs. We are happy to sell the Dark Sky Country signs or refer people to where they can purchase their favourite road signs.
2025 is a Municipal Election year: Guidelines have been put in place by Elections Alberta, which include the start of the nomination process as of January 1, 2025. I would like to inform you that I will be putting my name forward as a candidate for the October 2025 municipal election for Foothills County Division 4. I have greatly appreciated working with you and would be honoured to continue serving Division 4 residents!
Thank You: to High Country News for sharing community news!
For Other News & Updates:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CouncillorSuzanneOel/
Email: Suzanne.Oel@FoothillsCountyAB.ca
Visit High Country News online for my previous articles.
With Best Regards,
Suzanne
