MD Public Safety busy with School Zones, Dogs & Unsightly Property

Public Safety officers remind motorist to be aware of students

The Municipal District of Bonnyville Public Safety officers have been helping keep the kids in Ardmore safe. Officers have been keeping a watch over the school zone area during key pick up and drop off times, says Director of Public Safety, Chris Garner.

Garner presented a report to MD Council on Wednesday that officers have been keeping busy helping keep students safe around the Ardmore school. “The Ardmore school  zone is back in business, so we have an officer there most days, checking on kids crossing the busy street in Ardmore and checking on pick ups.”

The popular School Officer program is back at local schools. The Public Safety Department provides specially qualified Peace Officers to work in cooperation with 21 schools of both the Northern Lights Public Schools and Lakeland Catholic School Division. These schools are located in Bonnyville, Cold Lake, Glendon and the Municipal District. This is an extremely successful program and the municipality had won a 2011 education award for our SRO program. New to the program this year is the Art Smith Aviation School, in Cold Lake. “Combined with the schools we picked up last year, every school [in the area] is involved now.”

Along with school pick up and drop off safety, the MD Peace Officer continue to be busy with dog complaints, “which is normal for this time of year,” reports Garner. Dog complaints can be anything from a stray dog found to a noisey dog.

The Peace Officers are also working on unsightly property complaints, “hopefully, we get them all done before the snow.” There is one complaint that involved squatters on property where the owner is not currently in the area.