A rundown of the Patricia Street initiatives

A number of initiatives were talked about to address the vandalism and mischief issues facing Patricia Street, after the community consultations last spring took place.

As spring 2009 has sprung and tourists will soon pour into Jasper, some of these initiatives have taken off, some new ones have emerged, while others have faltered.

The Citizens on Patrol program didn’t make it out of the gate. According to Cpl. Tony Dolhan of the local RCMP detachment, “we did a couple of town forums to try and get people involved on that and unfortunately, nobody attended.” 

That said, the police are planning another information session sometime this spring to see if they can get it up and running, Dolhan said. “We’ve been trying for almost a year now to try and get that initiated, so without public involvement, we can’t do it.”

The idea to get bar owners to voluntarily amend their hours of operation has not happened. According to Municipal Manager George Krefting, “we met with the hotel owners on that particular initiative and we left that one with them... They said they’d talk to each other and get back to us, but they have not responded yet.”

The municipality has looked into getting an additional police officer, though it doesn’t look like it will happen. “The town has to initiate what’s called the Enhanced Police Position and the last I heard from the town is that they would not be supporting that,” said Cpl. Dolhan. 

The arrangement for increasing visitation of liquor establishments by the authorities, including Alberta Liquor and Gaming, Bylaw, Fire Department and the RCMP, has proven a success so far. “The frequency and the number of visits have increased substantially and so far the reports have come back, that as far as I know, there has not been any charges laid or any fines levied,” Krefting said. “That’s an indication that the operators are operating responsibly.” 

The bi-weekly publication The Skinny has also gotten off the ground publishing 15 issues to date. “What we are doing is creating a forum and contributing to a positive environment and social development, all of which I believe and I think the national crime prevention research supports, that crime and vandalism is less likely to take place in a positive environment,” said Bob Covey, editor of The Skinny and Team Coordinator for the Jasper Community Team. 

In terms of evidence of The Skinny’s success, Covey pointed to the “fairly comprehensive list of volunteers” and the “pretty impressive number of volunteer hours” that have accumulated since the publication began. In the coming months, Covey would like to get The Skinny brand more notoriety by teaming up with other agencies in town. 

The new initiative is called the Jasper Bar Link. Counc. and manager of the De’d Dog Pub, Rico Damota, said some of the town’s bars, including but not limited to, The Brew Pub, Champs Lounge, Downstream Bar, Earls Restaurant and the De’d Dog Pub are now connected via cell phones with picture-taking capability. 

The Bar Link is still in the development and testing stage, but it’s a way for owners to support each other, said Damota. If a patron gets cut off at the De’d Dog, Damota or one of his staff can snap a pick of the unruly patron and send it around to all the other bars in the system. “We’re going to honour each other in terms of the cut-off,” said Damota. “We’re looking out for each other and making the community a better place,” he said. 

The municipality is still working out ways to measure the success of these initiatives. “The only really objective measurement, and unfortunately you can’t necessarily tie it to the initiatives, is the amount of undesirable activity,” said Mayor Richard Ireland. Krefting will provide an update of these initiatives in his Manager’s Report at the next council meeting on April 14.