Lloydminster sees busy 2024

It’s been a busy 2024 for the City of Lloydminster with plenty of highs and lows.

Lloydminster Mayor, Gerald Aalbers, says one of the biggest events for the city happened this past summer.

“The Saskatchewan Summer Games was a huge highlight,” said Aalbers.

It took many years for the event to finally come to fruition.

“The summer games, as an example, were cancelled in 2020, it never happened. We tried in 2021 and council at that time said let’s reapply and see if we have that opportunity to lead to 2024,” said Aalbers.

He says getting to 2024 and hosting the games after it was cancelled was a big opportunity for Lloydminster. Aalbers said it was a chance to showcase the city to the province of Saskatchewan.

“The upgrades to our venues, seeing the number of people from Saskatchewan that came to Lloyd and beach volleyball. I understand we’re now on the beach volleyball circuit because we’ve got such great facilities, it just took a community to come together,” he said. “The contractors, the summer games committee, the city and volunteers. People want to come back and do beach volleyball in particular.”

Council faced many challenges this year, including the passing of a long-time member.

“The passing of Coun. Glenn Fagnan certainly challenged us quite a bit, losing a member of council of seven and a half years,” said Aalbers.

Fagnan passed away at the age of 65 in June. He was a Rotarian for more than 30 years and served two terms on council.

The passing of a councillor was not the only challenge they faced as it was also a transition year.

“I think council faced the challenge this year, it was a transition year, so it’s our fourth year of our mandate,” explained Aalbers.

This year was an election year for the municipality with residents taking to the polls in November to vote for the new council.

Council made a decision ahead of time to present the budget to the outgoing council.

He says the budget was presented ahead of the election to ensure transparency and everyone got the chance to have the full scope of city spending.

“That first budget is always a tough one, the more information you can get in time to digest it, speak to people about it and seek input, it was good. I think that was a challenge for being in that election year,” said Aalbers.

The new council saw three incumbents return and three newly-elected councillors join the table. 

For Aalbers, a highlight of the year was the number of events the city managed to pull off.

“I think the number of events that we hosted, the summer games, the heavy oil show went off without a hitch. Lot of great events, two sets of chuckwagon races, the fair went off,” he said. 

With the new year right around the corner, the city will have plenty to prepare for in the upcoming year with projects wrapping up and meetings ahead. 

Read more: Council makes policy more clear

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Christian Apostolovski
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