RCMP Rural Crime Watch

Posted on February 21, 2019 by Vauxhall Advance

By Cole Parkinson
Vauxhall Advance
cparkinson@tabertimes.com

With the Taber/Vauxhall RCMP detachment and Municipal District of Taber continuing to work towards setting up Rural Crime Watch in the area, progress is moving in the right direction.

After numerous discussions around Rural Crime Watch over the past several months in council chambers, councillors were given another update at their Feb. 11 meeting.

Dates suggested for a public meeting by RCW were March 16 or 23, both of which are Saturdays.

Council did ask if a day during the week would work better for everyone.

“I’ve reached out to my contact at Rural Crime Watch and I guess what we need to co-ordinate is, and a lot of these people are volunteers doing this in their spare time, they find for them weekends work better. At the end of the day, there is nothing we can’t facilitate. If we have to do something to make something work better, we can certainly try to do that,” said Sgt. Gord Yetman.

Council did express that a weekend would work perfectly fine if everyone was in agreeance to move forward.

“I prefer the 16th because I feel the earlier we are in the season, the better,” said Deputy Reeve Tamara Miyanaga.

Upon those discussions, Yetman says a shell of the former RCW that had set up in the shop was still there.
Bylaws and the previous bank account were still intact which could offer some help to the new division of RCW.

“We are not looking at the ‘worst case scenario’ for it,” added Yetman. “I think we are in good shape, it is now just about hammering out a date for the public meetings. It has been my thought right from the get-go that I need to have two. The reason being I’d like to have two on the same day because I’d like to have one down in Taber and then have one in Vauxhall.”

A venue for both the north and south meetings was also needed and council was more than willing to help find a suitable facility to hold the meetings.

“To be honest with you, I was looking at venues that wouldn’t have a big impact on anybody. I was wondering about maybe a firehall or something,” added Yetman.

With both Taber and Vauxhall having suitable firehalls that could hold large numbers of people, council and administration were in favour of utilizing both the Vauxhall station and the M.D. station in Taber.

“I would like to pack the place, but at the end of the day I can’t guarantee how many people will be attending,” continued Yetman.

The date for both public meetings has been set for March 16, with the Taber meeting going from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the M.D. of Taber Fire Station (5814-64th Avenue) and the Vauxhall portion going from 2-4 p.m. at the Vauxhall Fire Station (935-1st Avenue North).