Lethbridge Minute: Recovery Community, Encampment Update, and Pickleball Courts Open

Lethbridge Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Lethbridge politics

This Week In Lethbridge:

• The City’s website suggests there are no meetings scheduled this week, but the City Calendar indicates a Priorities and Agenda Review Committee meeting is planned for today. No time is listed, and no agenda is available though, so who knows...
  
  
• Council members will be attending the Alberta Municipalities Convention and Trade Show from September 27th to 29th in Edmonton. The City of Lethbridge is sponsoring a resolution that asks Alberta Municipalities to advocate to the Province to ensure that "provincial allocations of capital funding for school construction cover all costs of construction, including the servicing of school sites with the required infrastructure.”
  
  
• The Helen Schuler Nature Centre and City of Lethbridge Parks Department are encouraging residents to check out the Lethbridge Tree Passport. The newly launched passport was developed to support the 1,000 Trees in 2023 initiative, which encourages residents to plant trees on their properties. The passport showcases 36 different trees across the city, and the goal is for people to visit them, learn about the different species, and select the type that would be best for their property.

Last Week In Lethbridge:

• Council heard an update on the City’s encampment strategy. The latest report shows a decrease in waste from 1,600 kilograms to 400 kilograms per encampment cleanup, which indicates less entrenched encampments. Since June 19th, there have been 247 calls to the City regarding encampments. The Encampment Response Team will remain fully staffed through the winter, and will conduct a review of the first season of operation in order to present findings and recommendations to Council before the spring.
  
  
• Lethbridge’s first pickleball courts opened at Legacy Park, and Councillor Ryan Parker gave a speech at the opening ceremony. He said the cost involved - just over $650,000 from a federal grant - was worth it for the state-of-the-art courts. The courts have Plexipave, a sports surface that is supposed to be gentler on the knees and shoes, and there are Community Play Boxes at the park that give people the option to borrow pickleball rackets and balls. The City said pickleball is one of the fastest-growing sports in North America, and that there is strong support for the courts in the community. It took about five years from when the courts were first proposed to get them up and running.
  
  
• The new, $19 million, 50-bed Lethbridge Recovery Community opened. Managed by Fresh Start Recovery Centre, the facility will provide comprehensive, long-term treatment to around 200 individuals every year at no charge. The annual operating costs of $3.4 million will be paid by the Province, and clients will have access to opioid treatment medication, counselling, and financial and housing support.

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