Long-time St. Albert volunteer Carol Rankin will be honoured with a street name in the Riverside neighbourhood.
The portion of Meadowview Drive within that area structure plan will be renamed Rankin Drive once all the associated subdivision plans have been registered with the city. The street will be the east-west connector road in that neighbourhood.
Her husband, Brian Rankin, said the family is pleased and honoured – and he said he thinks she would have felt that way as well.
“If she was here, she’d say they don’t have to name a road after me! I didn’t do that much,” he said. “She was really humble that way, but she’d be thrilled.”
He said the location especially, so near many of the city’s walking trails and green spaces, is fitting for a woman who dedicated countless volunteer hours to promote parks and community gardens.
“She was a big supporter of green space and parks. Carol spent a lot of time walking,” Rankin said. “She probably covered every park trail in St. Albert I don’t know how many times.”
Mayor Nolan Crouse said he knew her well and echoed the sentiment that naming a road near to the river and so much park space is appropriate for such an active community volunteer.
“She was just a gem of a person. She volunteered; a tremendous amount of volunteer work,” he said. “She was heavily involved in parks, and tree planting, and generally just a real green-thumb kind of person. Highly respected.”
Carol Rankin died Dec. 1, 2013, and was remembered fondly by those around her. In a story in the St. Albert Gazette that ran shortly after her death, many prominent parks advocates and environmentalists spoke glowingly of her contributions to the city.
Former city parks-and-recreation coordinator Roger Belley said she was always involved with any volunteer work that needed doing.
“When others complained, Carol would instead ask, ‘What can I do for my community?’ And then she’d do it,” he said.
Elke Blodgett, who volunteered with Rankin with the city’s parks and open spaces master plan committee, said Rankin always knew her stuff.
“She would take information and she would never criticize but she would go home and research what she needed to know and bring it back to the committee,” she said. “She was always thinking a bit more than most about the environment.”
Rankin also served as president of the Riel Park Community Garden, and is described as a devoted gardener, environmentalist and community builder.
Planning director Adryan Slaght said street names in the city, which typically begin with the first letter of the neighbourhood in which they’re located, are picked in a variety of ways.
One quarter of the names must either reflect local geography, heritage, city features, or must be taken from the city’s potential significant names list, which is reviewed annually.
“We’re actually going back with the naming list in the next couple of weeks,” he said. “Council approves that list.”
Other significant names on that list beginning with the letter ‘R’ include former mayor Anita Ratchinsky, but her name was not a good candidate for a collector road like this one; city policy states former mayors’ names should be reserved for major arterials, such as Giroux Road and Ray Gibbon Drive.
Residents can suggest potential names via the city’s website.
While city staff help to create the list of potential names and advise developers on which names might be appropriate, he said the final decision on what to name any particular road rests with the developers in charge of the area structure plan.
– With files from Susan Jones
