Barn dancers at Armstrong’s Interior Provincial Exhibition can kick up their heels a while longer.
City council again unanimously granted the IPE’s request to extend barn dance hours 90 minutes, closing down at 1:30 a.m. instead of 12 a.m.
“There were no formal complaints in 2015,” said Coun. Shirley Fowler.
“The IPE goes around to the neighbourhood and let’s them know what’s going on.”
The barn dances will be held on the Friday and Saturday of the annual fall fair, starting at approximately 9:45 p.m. (after the professional rodeo ends) and ending at 1:30 a.m.
The IPE has again acquired the services of ICM Security to help maintain order.
Emissions reduced
The City of Armstrong continues to work on reducing its carbon emissions.
Total carbon emissions in 2015 were 156.47 tonnes, a 2.5 per cent reduction from the 160.53 measured in 2014.
“We will be reporting to the province that we are continuing to work toward carbon neutrality,” said city chief financial officer Terry Martens.
The city joined many other local governments in signing the Climate Action Charter with the province in 2008 with a goal of achieving carbon neutrality by offsetting carbon emissions through recognized energy projects and/or purchasing carbon credits.
To date, Armstrong has not purchased carbon credits.
The city annually tracks energy consumption, calculates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and reports on efforts to reduce overall GHG emissions.
New bylaw proceeds
Armstrong council has given unanimous support to three readings of a proposed new good neighbour bylaw.
The draft comes as several local governments have utilized such a bylaw approach to regulate vegetation management and dealing with neighbourhood nuisances such as unsightly property and noise.
If adopted, the new regulation would replace both the city’s unsightly premises and noise bylaws.
“Basic regulations regarding noise and unsightly premises are unchanged from their existing bylaws,” said Martens.
“However, some of the language has been updated and clarified.”
Unanimous three readings were also given to a new municipal ticketing information bylaw, which outlines who is authorized to issue tickets for each bylaw and describes an offence.