ATHABASCA – Wandering River will soon be home to a brand new community sign thanks to the efforts of a dedicated group of community volunteers who helped raise money for the cause.
During the Jan. 14 Athabasca County council meeting, councillors approved the purchase of a new sign for the hamlet using the $30,000 the community spent two years raising, despite misgivings from the table.
Councillors had initially decided to pay for the sign using county funds but a lack of a formal sign policy and concerns about the cost changed councillors minds.
“I wanted to take responsibility off of the community group because I don’t think it’s fair for them to work hard for something we’re responsible for providing,” said Coun. Natasha Kapitaniuk.
The sign, which is 13 feet by 7 feet, will share the county’s signature blue branding, and reads, “Welcome to Wandering River, an Athabasca County Community.”
Suggestions to change the sign, including an idea from Coun. Gary Cromwell to add “Gateway to the North,” for Wandering River, were discarded during the discussion. Other ideas from the community group, including a black background and the words, “Live, Play, Work” were also rejected.
“This is still Athabasca County and we should still have some consistent brand images,” said Coun. Brian Hall.
“Athabasca County has not adopted Gateway to the North as a slogan, but the Town of Athabasca has. We put development guidelines on things all the time, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say ‘Yes, but. Yes, you can have a sign, but these are the parameters.’”
Who pays for it?
While councillors were in a general agreement that a new sign wouldn’t be a bad thing, a lack of a clear policy for the county’s 11 hamlets left half the room nervous about committing $30,000 right off the bat.
“I can’t get behind spending $30,000 a sign for each hamlet,” said Coun. Camille Wallach.
“I feel like each community would be coming to us for a new sign and I just can’t support this. I would like to see something like Lac La Biche or Thorhild has (with) consistent signage throughout the community.”
Wandering River’s location was a point in the community’s favour for councillors who were okay with footing the bill. Thanks to its location on Highway 63, Wandering River’s annual average vehicle count — which is tracked by the province of Alberta — is just under 4,000, with 73 per cent being personal vehicles.
Regardless of who paid for it, Cromwell was happy to see the sign get approval. As he pointed out, government tends to move slowly and the community group had gotten stuck in the bureaucratic quagmire since its initial request.
“We have a community group that spent two years, two long years, working on fundraising for this sign that they were told the county would not pay for,” said Cromwell, who resides in the county’s northern division.
“Up until they showed up with a pile of money, then it became, ‘Oh no, we need to do this we need to get it done,’ and now we’re half a year in limbo where this community is sitting on tens of thousands of dollars of donated money. I understand that things in government do not move quickly, but we were reactive instead of proactive.”
