By Patrick Burles - (@PatrickBurles on Twitter)

Community Standards Bylaw Proves Successful in Taber

Sep 6, 2016 | 7:50 AM

TABER –  As the town of Bruderheim – located near Edmonton – adopts a new curfew for community youth, a similar bylaw in Taber is being praised by the town’s mayor.

The Town of Taber instituted the Community Standards bylaw in March of 2015, putting fines in place for things like spitting, swearing and yelling.

Mayor Henk De Vlieger noted that it’s only for extreme cases, and not meant in anyway to crack down on the community.

“It’s a tool for the police, if they have to do some enforcement, they have the extra tool to deal with it, and they hardly have to use it,” stated De Vlieger.

He also pointed out a noticeable difference it’s made in Taber.

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“Graffiti has actually pretty well disappeared,” De Vlieger explained. “We’ve had some problems with graffiti at our skateboard park and some washroom facilities, but the last year, basically we didn’t have any graffiti problems.”

When asked if he expected more communities throughout the province to follow their lead, De Vlieger simply stated, “I think so.” He explained that even a year and a half later he still gets emails from other communities that have said they’re considering similar moves.