Editorial

Soft shoe didn't work

Indignation is a funny animal. Especially when it’s being used to complete a snow job such as was attempted on Slave Lake Town council last week.
Developer Ken Gripe met with council to talk about a new plan he has for the Travelers’ Centre just south of Hwy. 2 at its intersection with Hwy. 88.
Several years ago, Gripe and his partners erected the sign promising the Travel Centre, moved around some topsoil for several months, offered allegations of developing a huge hotel complete with big-name restaurant development, then suddenly left town, leaving the solitary sign and a few dirt swells as the only evidence of great things to come.
Years later we learned the Super 8 venture was instead, going to be constructed on the north side of Hwy. 2, right next to the McDonalds Restaurant.
Stories and allegations about a UFA (United Farmers of Alberta) service station in the same development flew around for several months and years, but soon they, too, grew dim.
So when Gripe and his fellow Man in Black appeared as delegates at council’s meeting last week, we were just as shocked as Mayor Ray Stern.
But Gripe wasn’t there to talk hotels. He was there to inform council he was looking for their permission to change his original plans, and allow for the UFA service station to be constructed at the west end of the development.
The plan appeared to be worth considering until, suddenly, Gripe hit council will a barrage of reminders about how much he’d already done as he made plans to develop the site, and how much he’d already spent on what was going to be an enhancement to this community.
Suddenly it became evident that the developer was objecting to Development Officer Laurie Skrynyk’s suggestion that the UFA developer should have to give the Town a $141,000 letter of credit to ensure the service road leading to the service station would be paved within the allotted 24-month term.
Reminding Mayor Ray Stern and council he’d already been expected to spend $1 million to install a water main to service development in the proposed hotel’s vicinity, Gripe seemed incensed to think that the Town would have the unmitigated gall to ask for a letter of credit “to say we’re credible to pave a service road.” he said.
“If anybody should be asked to put up a letter of credit, we should be asking others.
“We’ve paid the money, we’ve taken the risks and improved the development potential on the south side of the highway.”
Thank goodness Mayor Ray Stern recognized the bluff for what it was and offered no promises to the indignant Gripe.
Towns get stung by empty or unfulfilled promises all the time, he told Gripe, and their ratepayers are left holding the bag (pronounced ‘unsubstantiated debt’).
And promises that may or may not have been made by former councils don’t necessarily hold water. That was then and this is now.
And if by chance the pavement doesn’t appear, drawing money from a water main would be as effective as trying to extract cash from a rock.

Etc., etc., etc
Three cheers for the province’s decision to finally release the cheque that it promised to the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory several years ago. That crew has worked long and hard to see its dream reach fruition, and has waited patiently for the cheque to appear.
And if the centennial grant was created to make Alberta’s 100th birthday a memorable occasion, why not build a legacy that’ll benefit generations? And what better place for that legacy to appear than Slave Lake, the little community that’s proven time and again that it could.