Mayor Nolan Crouse says he wants to hear from Akinsdale residents about issues in their neighbourhood at the first public meeting of his promised task force on crime and safety.
The meeting at Elmer Gish School will go ahead on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and is the first move by the mayor’s proposed task force on crime, vandalism and safety.
Crouse said he wants to hear about what is going on in the neighbourhood, the issues that Akinsdale is dealing with and the success stories as well.
“It will help us identify some of the key issues,” said Crouse. “Maybe there is some good feedback there as well that we will hear about.”
Crouse proposed the idea of a task force early in the public hearing process for the 70 Arlington Dr. development. He said he wanted to look into the issue. He didn’t see the connection between crime and the proposed Habitat for Humanity housing development.
“I heard it was a concern, but I didn’t want it to become tied into the land planning issue.”
Crouse said he is asking city staff to bring detailed statistics about crime to the meeting to present to the public. Then he wants to hear what people in Akinsdale think the specific issues are.
Crouse said he also hopes to be able to bring residents together to work on whatever problems the community identifies.
St. Albert RCMP Insp. Warren Dosko plans to attend and said he also hopes a group of residents will come together, much like residents did in Braeside, Deer Ridge and Forest Lawn.
“My hope would be we are able to leave that meeting with a group of people who are willing to work on the issues affecting their neighbourhood.”
Dosko said Akinsdale isn’t a neighbourhood that stands out as a problem for the RCMP.
“It has unique problems, but we can say that about every neighbourhood.”
He said every neighbourhood in the city has challenges and certain types of crime are more prevalent in some areas, but there are no huge red flags in Akinsdale.
“We don’t have the dramatically terrible neighbourhood and the shining light,” he said. “There is nothing that dramatically jumps off the pages.”
