My wife and I returned to Red Deer after a 20-year absence and over the past year I have noted a number of critical opinions being expressed by residents of this community in the Advocate (snow removal complaints).
I would like to provide a different perspective.
We returned to Red Deer after living the past 17 years in Fort McMurray, where our city street in front of our home was plowed maybe six times in that duration.
At one point, it was so bad that my vehicle got high-centred accessing my driveway.
Our garbage collection up there restricted us to four bags only. There was no blue box program, no unlimited yard waste disposal option, and a very selective group of waste disposal individuals who would often leave refuse with no explanation of why it was refused.
The municipality in its infinite wisdom placed the city landfill at the entrance to the city on the only highway to access the community.
Accordingly the first impression people had of Fort McMurray was a flurry of paper and trash flying through the air and littering the green space immediately south of the entrance to the city.
There was rarely room for vehicles on the streets in most residential areas as company vehicles would consume most of the road space in front of all the dwellings, and given the transient nature of the population up there, there was little respect for the aesthetics of residential homes with most sporting RVs, boat trailers and other “toys” in the front driveways, if not even on the lawns.
Fort McMurray, despite these types of shortcomings, was very good to me and my family and I think most residents up there simply took these deficiencies in stride.
However, here in Red Deer, the sense of pride in the community is abundantly evident.
You rarely see litter cascading across the open fields like tumble weeds.
You should have seen the look on our faces when no less than four different garbage trucks came by our back yard to remove our trash.
When spring arrived, we were surprised to get a call from the Red Deer utility service inquiring about an increase in our water use.
Our neighbours compete with the rest of us in the cul de sac to see who can shovel whose driveway first. Most people’s yards are impeccable, always trimmed and watered in the summer.
Your main thorough-fares are always beautifully maintained with the green space clean and always trimmed and landscaped.
It is truly a beautiful city we live in here and, I think for some of us, it is taken for granted.
So while others will complain about our deficiencies, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Red Deer for having us back.
I simply forgot about the benefits of living here during my 20-year absence and am certainly appreciative to be back home, heavy snowfall and all!
Stafford Gorsalitz
Red Deer