M.D. council voices party noise concerns in area

By Cole Parkinson
Vauxhall Advance
cparkinson@tabertimes.com

The Municipal District of Taber has continued to bring forward a few concerns around noisy parties across the region to the Taber/Vauxhall RCMP detachment.

During council’s regular meeting on Sept. 10, the issue was raised during the RCMP’s monthly report.

“We have a ton of youth that likes to party and stunt, do you guys feel that you have the resources to deal with that or is there something we could advocate for?” asked Coun. Jen Crowson. “One thing that is frustrating is we will have a road that is just graded and three days later it is ripped up so it needs grading again.”

While the concern had been raised at different times during M.D. meetings, the issue has persisted around various points around the M.D.

The RCMP delegation pointed to one particular reason why these concerns have continued to be raised in the area.

“As far as locally, we are fully staffed. I think we have the members to handle those situations. We need the community members to phone us. I don’t know why, and I have struggled with this throughout my time, people in the community are scared to phone us because they think they are going to inconvenience us or it’s not something we should be worrying about,” said Cpl. Brian Weisbrod. “There is a fine line between letting kids be kids and letting it get out of control and it being dangerous where it needs to be brought to our attention. There is a line where the police need to be involved.”

He also pointed to the fact the RCMP could start doing regular spot checks if the problem persisted in certain areas.

Much like the M.D. community peace officer mandate, the RCMP hope to bring education to the table before handing out tickets.

“If we can talk to someone and educate them, that is the route we prefer to take,” explained Weisbrod.

As council and the RCMP have a collaborative approach to these issues, some on council expressed a further need for the RCMP to respond better to calls they receive.

“I think also in fairness, the RCMP could do a little better with your response to some of the people who do call in. People call in on fuel being stolen or something and the response is ‘what do you expect me to do about it?’ So the next time they think it was useless,” said Coun. Brian Brewin. “There is a perception out there that there is not much use calling this in.”

“I can appreciate that for sure. I can’t speak for every member but I can’t say that it doesn’t happen,” responded Weisbrod.

The RCMP report was accepted as information by council.

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