The municipality is growing up. By this time next year, the town will have its own space in the provincial court building complete with council chambers, an addition which will likely offer an air of formality to biweekly council meetings.

As the town works out the kinks and formalizes a process, for instance, of dealing with questions from the media during council meetings, perhaps more residents will be encouraged to get involved in and pay attention to municipal government proceedings.

Strong opinions are regularly voiced on the street and among friends, yet some are frustrated as they don’t know how to officially get their point across.

Public meetings are great, but tend to leave some attendees feeling the same way.

This week, the Community Sustainability Plan (CSP) hosted two workshops, one Wednesday night and one Thursday. In the beginning, enthusiasm for the CSP was high, and we’ll see if it continues.

The easiest way to voice an opinion about something going with the municipality is to send a letter to council. How will they know what the town thinks if they aren’t told?

And with any luck, more people will take advantage of the new council chambers, and head out to a meeting or two.

Bad news in the news

For some, it seems as though a cloud’s hanging over Jasper. Even on a sunny day when the temperature gets up above freezing, lately it seems like one bad thing after the next has happened.

Just last week, a popular young man in town suddenly passed away, leaving behind a number of close friends and family members to grieve.

An accident on Hwy 16 at the end of January took the lives of two young girls from Saskatchewan.

A hotel in Hinton was robbed at gunpoint on the weekend, leaving a criminal at large.

Sometimes it seems newspapers bear only bad news.

But look at this week’s issue.

A group of volunteers take to the streets when the snow flies and shovel the walks outside people’s houses who can’t do it themselves.

A new environmental stewardship coordinator is looking forward to making green initiatives, valued by Jasperites, a reality.

Tuesday night two women held an event in town to raise money to educate children in Burma, on the other side of the world. Their story will be in next week’s issue.

There’s good news all around us, but we have to report the bad with the good. If anything, it’s a sign that we’re not alone as we struggle through what seems like the most difficult of times. 

And we’re not. The number of people pulling together to honour the memory of a lost friend is astounding, and will be apparent as the week goes on.

The thoughts of the staff at the Fitzhugh are with you, no matter what difficulty you face.