‘I believe it is an thrilling time for our communities to return collectively as one on a map’
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Residents of Black Diamond and Turner Valley will enter their New 12 months’s Eve events as members of 1 neighborhood and emerge as residents of a brand new municipality as the 2 communities develop into one.
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The town of Diamond Valley will develop into Alberta’s latest neighborhood on Sunday after the 2 city councils permitted a merger earlier this 12 months. Barry Crane, who would be the city’s first mayor, stated the Diamond Valley Sustainability Committee is internet hosting a New 12 months’s Eve celebration to mark the event.
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“I believe it is an thrilling time for our communities to return collectively as one on a map,” Crane stated. “It is all about the place we’re going sooner or later and planning accordingly. So, this is among the huge wins by merger, our planning and design for the long run goes to be streamlined.”
Turner Valley and Black Diamond are positioned roughly 4 kilometers aside, linked by Freeway 22. They’re positioned roughly 65 kilometers southwest of central Calgary and 22 kilometers west of Okotoks. The cities have beforehand been divided on their intentions, as a 2007 plebiscite noticed Turner Valley residents approve a gathering, whereas Black Diamond residents didn’t.
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Amalgamation is predicted to be useful
Since then, sentiments across the concepts have modified and earlier this 12 months the communities’ city councils introduced a joint bid to merge which was accepted by the province. Black Diamond Mayor Brendan Kelly informed Postmedia in Could that his council was excited in regards to the choice and that the merger was one of many largest causes he ran for workplace.
“We anticipate to offer the identical providers and discover some efficiencies and seize extra various methods to launch applications,” Kelly informed Postmedia on the time.
Crane stated the choice to amalgamate got here after a long time of discussions and concepts going down in regards to the viability of turning into one neighborhood. The mayor stated the ultimate choice to merge got here all the way down to streamlining providers and saving prices for the taxpayer.
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“We’re on the identical rubbish truck. We’ve got the identical water plant that serves each communities. We’ve got the identical sewer system and sewer plant providers, each communities,” Crane stated. “All the things we do, we achieve this shoulder to shoulder collectively, we now have to marvel why we’re duplicating all these items.”
He stated the choice has already eradicated a whole city board, saving greater than $300,000 a 12 months.
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Diamond Valley elects first mayor and council
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Diamond Valley: Two cities will develop into one in Alberta
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Turner Valley, Black Diamond expects to be one city inside a 12 months
With the merger taking impact this weekend, Crane stated most residents are supportive if not relieved that it lastly got here by. He stated there stay some runners who will not assist the change, however general the neighborhood is able to transfer ahead.
“We have thrown half one million {dollars} over the past 30 years doing research on whether or not it is good or unhealthy,” Crane stated. “I prefer to wander on the aspect, lastly it occurred, now let’s get to work.”
Crane stated the brand new city council will likely be sworn in on Jan. 9 and will likely be tasked with approving 11 new ordinances throughout their first council assembly.
— With recordsdata from Invoice Kaufmann
dshort@postmedia.com
