Jack Van Rijn reflects on first year as mayor of Coaldale

One of these, according to Van Rijn, is the ongoing challenge with the federal government in acquiring funding for the RCMP in Coaldale.

“For the Town of Coaldale, with our population of just under 9,000, we are paying 100 per cent of our policing costs,” explained Van Rijn. “Where it should be, because we fall between a population of 5,000 and 15,000, we should only be paying 70 per cent, and that equates to approximately $462,000 in additional funds that we are paying for policing that we shouldn’t be.”

Van Rijn hopes that in the new year, they can discuss further ideas on how to address those costs.

He also noted that Coaldale is in the process of taking over its ambulance service from Alberta Health Services (AHS) as the town hopes to have its first responders working more closely with one another.

“We’re hoping in the new year that we’re going to be able to relocate the ambulances to our Coaldale Fire Hall and have the crews work alongside our fire department personnel,” he said. “As part of that with us taking the contract over from AHS, we will have our own staff manning the ambulances.”

Van Rijn added that, “Currently, the Alberta Health Services staff is doing an excellent job. This isn’t about the level of care, it’s just the procedural components that Alberta Health Services has in place. So, those are the two big items that we are currently facing right now.”

As for some highlights for the Southern Alberta town, Coaldale is enhancing an existing contract with Lethbridge County to expand its emergency service response area.

“We’ll be covering all the way out to 43rd Street now [in North Lethbridge]. Historically, we were just approximately half a mile west of Broxburn,” detailed Van Rijn.

He added, “We’re also going to start doing the fire inspections for Lethbridge County, and as part of that we will be hiring two additional fire inspectors that will be based out of [the] Coaldale Fire Hall to look after that for us.”

As part of that, the Town of Coaldale budget 2023-2025 was confirmed, resulting in a 1.82 per cent increase in residential tax.

Council reportedly struggled with keeping it at zero percent as they, like many others, were faced with the rising cost of inflation.

“It was hard to keep it at zero percent,” said Van Rijn. “And everyone around the council table really wanted to have that [zero percent], but just to keep the lights on and the building heated, we couldn’t prevent that so we’re looking at a slight tax increase.”

As the mayor summed up his 2022, he called Coaldale quite the ‘happening place’, as several projects and developments are in the works heading into the new year.

These feature the new Civic Square Project, roughly 70 acres of residential housing, including single family dwellings and multi-family homes, the construction of an outdoor skating rink plaza, the groundbreaking of a new recreation centre and the largest rural high school in Alberta, along with a new skate park.

“Also, we are in the process of moving into our new town office facility in Coaldale. It’s referred to as Civic Square,” said Van Rijn. “That’s a partnership between a private developer that built a two-story building on Main Street. There are four condominium retail outlets on the main floor, the second floor is all administrative offices for the Town of Coaldale and then on the west side of the building we built the atrium.”

“It’s a large gathering space that can be utilized for weddings, conventions, and it’s a very, very beautiful facility that we will be moving into in the beginning of January,” continued Van Rijn.

Van Rijn admits he looks forward to all the exciting projects heading into 2023. He plans to prioritize working with more private developers in the new year to tackle the affordable housing crisis in Coaldale.

Read more: Lethbridge News Now.

by Sarah Jones

Jack Van Rijn reflects on first year as mayor of Coaldale

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