Business View Civil Municipal - July 2023

61 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 7 BLACKFALDS , ALBERTA the community has grown. Sean can tell you more about the parks and trails. The last few years have seen very rapid growth.” Barnes arrived in Blackfalds in 2006. “And when I got here,” he said, “it was quite the small, little town. It was starting to grow, but what they didn’t have here was a lot of developed parks. So in 2008, we did a recreational parks master plan, and in that plan, people were saying we needed more trails. When I got here, we had one to two kilometres’ worth of trails. And now, today, we have between 18 and 20 kilometres’ worth of trails. We have a large regional trail system that goes from here to Lacombe. It took us two years to complete that. People are also looking at more playgrounds. When I got here, we had four playgrounds, and today we have 14. We have themed playgrounds. For example, one playground in a subdivision is a pirate ship, and another is a Western theme or dinosaur theme. It brought a bit more excitement for the families in the community.” “Blackfalds is very centrally located in the province along the main corridor of Highway Two-A in Central Alberta, Canada, just outside the city of Red Deer but centrally located between Edmonton and Calgary,” said Hoover. “It’s very difficult to beat in terms of a central corridor or trade-access route. We have experienced unprecedented growth within the last two decades. We have essentially doubled our population each decade for the last 20 years. That is residential growth, not physical size. With that there has been a substantial amount of infrastructure that the town has had to add to meet the needs of all the new residents. Sean has been a part of that growth for a long time. “In terms of physical size,” he added, “Blackfalds is still a small community––a small town. But between 2010 and now, the town size has more than doubled. Our downtown core itself is quite small. But there have been two new schools added in the last few years. We are in the process of building a high school, which is a first in a town of over 11,000. That tells you how quickly 310-WIRE (9473) fortisalberta.com The connection we all share to our past, present and future As we work together to keep Alberta thriving, we know that bringing electricity to all corners of the province wouldn’t be possible without the strong partnerships we’ve built over our shared history. For generations, these relationships have fueled our dedication to delivering reliable power to your community. It’s a commitment built on years of investment with you. We’re the line that connects us all.