The small villages of Gadsby and Donalda have resoundingly rejected dissolving their historic communities.
Voters in Donalda voted 85 to 29 against dissolution. In the tiny community of Gadsby — population 29 — only five voted to dissolve their community and join the County of Stettler, with 18 voting against.
The non-binding votes were called by Alberta Municipal Affairs after petitions were received from small groups of residents in each community seeking lower property taxes. The results will be used by Municipal Affairs Minister Hector Goudreau to make his recommendation to cabinet.
Donalda Mayor Terry Nordahl is confident the community 30 km northeast of Stettler has been saved. At an information session last month, a Municipal Affairs official told residents the minister has only gone against a community dissolution vote once, and that was in a case where the vote was split 51-50.
There is a feeling among residents that the village of 250 that celebrates its centennial in 2012 has a lot going for it.
It boasts the world’s biggest oil lamp at nearly 13 metres tall, a museum with more than 900 lamps dating back to the 1600s, several significant historical buildings, and a new fire hall. An affordable housing duplex was recently built and a new subdivision started.
Also, it looks like the Stettler Steam Tours will be extended through to Donalda in the future, which will provide an economic and tourism boost.
“Everything seems to be moving in an ‘up’ direction,” she said. “We want to keep the village as a village.”
There are some property tax savings to joining the county, but she believes people looked past that. There were concerns that dissolution might increase water and sewer and garbage collection costs.
“I just think people started doing the math,” she said. “Secondly, you don’t get the decision to choose your own destiny.”
In Gadsby, which is already planning its centennial celebrations this year, Velvet Nickerson is glad to see a strong vote against dissolving their tiny community.
“I think we work good this way,” she said from Alberta’s smallest village 20 km east of Stettler.
A huge issue for the community’s residents was the fear that the cost of emptying septic systems could skyrocket if the county took over the community and a community-run service was dropped. The community is also on the verge of getting a sewer system and there were concerns the project could be threatened.
A dissolution study suggested huge property tax savings by joining the county, but many called those numbers into question at a public meeting held a week before the Wednesday dissolution vote.
“The county was cheaper, but it wasn’t huge enough to convince anyone,” said Nickerson, who is married to Mayor Fred Entwisle.
Alberta Municipal Affairs has said previously it typically takes about three months following a vote before a decision is made.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com