As a community experiencing significant growth, the Town of Blackfalds wants to hear from its citizens on their proposed Budget.

A Budget Open House was held last night (Nov. 29th) at the Civic Cultural Centre, with a big part of the budget focused on recreation.

With several large scale capital projects on the books, such as a new outdoor rink at Pine Crescent, a new playground at Valley Crescent, the architectural design and construction plans for the proposed twinning of the Multi-Plex Arena, and moving the old skateboard park across town, Blackfalds has big plans when it comes to recreation for its growing younger population.

Newly elected Councillor Marina Appel says ice time is a concern, as available indoor arenas are already at 110 % capacity.

“The outdoor rink at Pine Crescent on the east side of town, that will be more of a short term solution, for the fact that we do need to get more permanent indoor ice in our community. Especially for the young families, with the young kids in hockey, you can’t drive around to other communities especially when you have two or more of them involved, it’s just too difficult.”

Appel says they want to ensure that growing population can enjoy those recreation opportunities for years to come.

“We’re a community with very young families, as well we really have an active recreation crew, we have lots of playgrounds and parks within our community and all that green space takes maintenance, as well as upgrading, and we want to make sure we have facilities on the east side of town as well as the west side of town.”

Blackfalds has grown by 4.27% this year, which has once again surpassed the provincial average of 1.51%.

Town Council is only looking to increase taxes by 1.1%

The budget will be finalized on December 31st.