WESTLOCK COUNTY – Following inspections, some playgrounds in Westlock County need repairs at a total cost of about $30,000, according to Community Services Co-ordinator Adrienne Finnegan.
The free inspections were completed in August of 2024 and identified repairs needed for safety purposes.
“Nothing is in dire need of repair, nothing needs to be pulled out, but there are some minor safety concerns based on the inspections that need to be looked after,” said Finnegan.
Deputy Reeve Ray Marquette, however, questioned whether playground upgrades should be done.
“Do we do a count on how many people use it?” he asked. “Maybe we should take it out. Really someone should do a count on how much it is used.”
Coun. Sherri Provencal, however, said the playgrounds are important to the hamlets in the county.
“I’m actually into maybe getting more money into our playgrounds in our hamlets because some are showing metal.
“The majority of hamlets have kids,” added Provencal. “We said right from the beginning that we are working on our hamlets. Yes we have infrastructure we need to fix but the whole point is we need to do something to make this more family-friendly that is free of cost to people.”
Coun. Stuart Fox-Robinson agreed and asked administration to present council with specific recommendations.
“To Deputy Reeve Marquette, if he would like to sit outside the playgrounds and count the numbers of users then so be it but I do think this is something that is needed," said Fox-Robinson.
The information was presented to council during their 2025 budget discussions at the county’s Committee of the Whole meeting on Nov. 12.
