The Village of Carbon Council is looking at the new year as an opportunity to go forward improving the infrastructure in the community.
Mayor Bryan Peever took a moment to catch up with the Mail on the accomplishments of the village through a difficult 2021 and what it is looking forward to in the new year.
Like most communities, there was a change at election time. In Carbon Peever, Renee O’Brien, and Michelle Lomond were reelected, and Trina Anderson and Brian McHugh were newly elected.
He said one meaningful task they took on last year was its infrastructure review. Peever explains they have been working on it for a couple of years.
“What we have found is the village was neglected for a number of years, and now we are in the position of trying to get it back up to scratch,” he explains.
The infrastructure review they undertook helped to identify areas that need attention. It highlighted several areas the village needs to work on.
“Our engineers came up with a 5, 10, 15, and 20-year plan, and all the things we have to do immediately and things we can work on and try to get everything straightened out,” he said.
He says with work that is needed they are looking at a loan bylaw to finance the work.
He explains the village is in good financial shape. It had taken out a loan for the Diamond Subdivision more than a decade ago and says in about two years, it will be debt-free.
“Right now, the rates are startlingly low as there are a lot of people out here looking for jobs, so it is quite competitive out there,” he said.
“Taxes aren’t going up because of it, there is really going to be zero impact except we are going to start fixing stuff.”
The village was able to secure some grant funding to help deal with COVID-19 and was able to make changes at the pool to make sure it remained open. They also completed upgrades to the campground to make it touchless, as well as other upgrades to municipal assets.
Another success in 2021 was the council’s push to sell the Diamond Subdivision. Peever said all the lots are now sold, and they are seeing shovels in the ground. The subdivision also has a garden plot, where residents can plant vegetables, as well as a playground. The walking path has also been extended to the area.
Another addition was the disc golf course added to the Lions Park. Peever says they have seen locals and visitors making great use of the course.
Last year the village helped to update downtown by buying up the derelict Royal City Restaurant on Caradoc Ave.
“It hadn’t been occupied for at least three or four years. Nobody was going to buy it, and it was going to sit there until it fell down…so we bought it,” said Peever. “That was last year’s budget. This year’s budget, we are looking at tearing it down. That will open three lots.
“If we get fair market value for the lots, we’ll actually make money.”
He is optimistic about the coming year.
“The future is bright for Carbon. We have lots of plans and lots of ideas. We are continually improving, making it cleaner and prettier, making it better for residents and children.”

Despite continued pressures from the COVID-19 pandemic and an agricultural disaster in the summer, Kneehill County continues to press forward with new initiatives, new business opportunities, and even a new award under its belt.
Kneehill County entered into a four-year agreement with the Town of Trochu and Trochu Housing Corporation to back funding for a proposed $32 million seniors’ living facility that will provide long-term care to aging residents--from independent living to the highest Designated Supportive Living 4 and 4D designations, which includes dementia patients. The Town of Trochu was unable to secure the $20 million loan on its own due to the town’s debt limit and approached Kneehill County in February; the agreement was officially signed in October.
At the October signing, 21 of 24 life-lease units were already pre-sold.
Throughout the summer, Kneehill County focused on drawing local tourism to the region through two methods, a paid parking pilot at Horseshoe Canyon recreation site, and a social media and online campaign. Parks and recreation staff were on-site at Horseshoe Canyon to collect the $2 parking fee and provide visitors with information on other recreation and tourism locations in the region beginning in May between Thursdays and Mondays.
Staff recorded a total of 7,696 vehicles during the 76 days they were on-site, with a majority of vehicles, some 88 per cent, from Alberta and six per cent from B.C. The pilot was considered a success and council approved to include provisions to continue the program in the 2022 budget.
As part of the social media and online campaign, QR signage was installed at Horseshoe Canyon directing visitors to the Kneehill County website’s visitors’ page; between the signage and other campaign initiatives, traffic to the visitors’ page increased by some 864 per cent, from only 3,166 views in 2020 to over 30,000 in 2021. Social media followers also increased on both the county’s Facebook and Instagram pages by over 900 and 1,800 per cent respectively.
During the summer, a citizen’s satisfaction survey was also conducted; approximately 10 per cent of Kneehill County residents responded to the survey and, overall, some 80 per cent of those respondents said they have a positive quality of life in Kneehill County. There were some areas where citizens were not fully satisfied, and Kneehill County council will use the survey results to determine opportunities and areas for improvement.
One challenge the county faced was unprecedented high temperatures and minimal rainfall during the summer months. In August, Kneehill County council declared a state of agricultural disaster as crop growth was stunted and yields were lower than anticipated; they were one of 69 municipalities throughout the province to declare an agricultural disaster. Despite this, harvest progress in the Central Region, which includes Kneehill County, was about 99 per cent complete by the final Alberta Crop Report in October, and over both the five and 10-year averages.
One big achievement for Kneehill County was receiving the 2021 Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) which was presented to council in December. The 2021 Kneehill County budget was published on the county’s website and provided ratepayers with a comprehensive and easy-to-understand document that was a collaborative effort between various departments within the county. While this is the first time Kneehill County has received this award, they are hopeful to continue providing similar budget presentations to ratepayers, and the 2022 budget documents are expected to be posted to the website in early 2022 ahead of budget deliberations.