LETHBRIDGE- In just over two weeks the 5th Annual Dodge Extreme CPRA Spring Rodeo gets underway.

The rodeo, which runs on March 26th and 27th, will feature ladies barrel racing, bull riding, steer wrestling, bareback riding, saddle bronc riding and team roping.

Doug Kryzanowski with Exhibition Park commented that the event is great for the entire family, explaning that there will be a Cowgirl Bling and Country Things trade show at the rodeo. There will also be a Country Cabaret Friday night, with the Dusty Boot Band and Durango playing. The cost is included in the rodeo ticket or $5 at the gate only after 8 p.m.

Everyone under the age of 10 gets in for free, 10 and over is just $10. Starting today you can get your tickets at the Exhibition Park front desk or Western Stockman.

For more information, you can visit www.exhibitionpark.ca.

In a report card of sorts council learned that 251 new housing units were developed, doors to the woman's transition home opened, and relationships with landlords have been forged.

531 people were housed in 306 households, more than half of which were seniors living on a fixed income and SHIA Research and Evaluation Chair Bob Campbell says those people are enjoying new found stability.  "That a fairly significant thing, and shows that when you put effort into it and make your first priority [housing the people] that you can do it.  It's a challenge in a community like Lethbridge, when our Vacancy rate is so [low] but, when we work with landlords and explain what we're doing we've made significant progress is housing the homeless."

Having already made such great strides, Campbell says SHIA's focus will now shift from immediately housing as many as they can to housing those who present more difficulty.  "That includes people who have mental illness, people with addictions, people living in extreme poverty, people with other health issues and those kinds of things.  Those are considered complex and sometimes they are more difficult to place.  But, they can be placed if they have the right supports in place, and that's what we'll be looking at."

While the sheer number of people provided housing in under a year has had a significant impact on the community, it's also played a large role in the reduction of services provided.  "When people get housed they begin to change... and have some stability in their lives.  They can start to eat properly, the kids can get to school, they can get to their doctors appointments, and service agencies can start to help them by looking for jobs.  People who have been dealing with addiction issues, for example, because they have a home are more inclined to start cleaning up their act a little bit.  They get help sometimes.  They aren't back on the street, they aren't getting thrown in jail again, they aren't showing up in emergency, and that's a very positive aspect of the program."

The reduction in services provided has reduced the costs as well.  Campell says prior to being placed in permanent housing it costs about $134,000 to support 1 homeless person, and that those costs have been reduced to about $27,000 a year after being provided housing.  "These are averages.  If you take the costs for someone who is on the street or staying at the shelter, the number of times they are picked up by police, the number of times they show up in the emergency room and that averages out to $134,000.  Once they are in a home or apartment that number drops significantly.  We are still getting them to their services, getting them help.  And eventually some of those people will be totally self-reliant.  They'll have a job or whatever, and it won't cost them nearly as much.  It's a significant savings right there."

The homelessness issue isn't cleared up by any means, and the Chair told council Monday, that there are still between 80 and 97 people utilizing the emergency shelter each night.  "It will be [persistent] for a while, but as the program progresses on we would hope that the numbers would begin to drop.  We are already seeing slight drops.  There are a number of reasons for the [usage].  Sometimes is just people passing through and wind up in the shelter.  People would be surprised to know that there are people living in the shelter that do have jobs, but can't find a place to stay.  If we can get more affordable housing units in place, then we would start to see that number start to drop right away."

Campbell says, he isn't sure how much money there will be for the build of affordable housing this year just that there will be some.  "The province made its own commitment, in a 10 year plan to end homelessness in Alberta.  There are dollars, they aren't huge numbers, and we have to apply like everyone else.  [The province] is addressing [homelessness] and at this point they haven't cut those numbers and we are pleased with that.  We'll get our share based on a formula used throughout the province."

A SHIA spin-off, Project Homeless Connect, has also proven hugely successful.  "It's to get people with low income, people who are living in the shelter or the working poor, connected to service agencies.  It gets them help in getting a social insurance number, getting their Alberta Health Care card, basic stuff like getting haircuts.  We're going to continue doing it twice a year; the next one is April 24, 2010 at the Seniors Centre."

City Council approved a plan tabled by Brown Okamura and Associates, representatives of and Edmonton area developer who will divide the land into 250 lots.

Two unit dwellings will not be permitted, and the smallest permitted lot size was set at 1/3 acre.

Representatives say that "Prairie Arbour Estates" will be a higher-end subdivision, and that many of the lots are already all but paid for.

Schaaf told council that there are only two cells left on the current site, meaning the landfill will have consumed all of the space currently permitted with the next 10 to 12 years.  "Firstly, we're looking at ensuring that we maintain a traditional waste disposal model, of excavating soil and placing waste into cells, and that we have enough capacity for the next 25 to 50 years.  That would allow us to bridge into a new technology that is different, and we'll be looking at that as a second part to this plan.  The third element of work is to look at amending our approval/permits, to give us additional capacity on the site.  We'll achieve that by [building] higher, as well as expanding east to the land we own there."

While the city already owns a 1/4 section immediately east of the existing site, Schaaf commented that, the public consultation portion of the process could become the most difficult and time consuming.  "We will use a process that will involve a series of open houses that will describe what the site could look like.  We will also form a community advisory group, which will allow members of the community to sit on a team-committee and be briefed on what we are doing and what the future looks like.  The number one challenge in citing or expanding landfills isn't the engineering or geotechnical side of it, but making sure that you can deal with any of the concerns/issues identified by the adjacent neighbors.  That is a very important piece of this project, and in fact could be the most difficult piece."

Schaaf added that building up would look much like the landfills in Edmonton or Toronto, where the majority of waste is contained above ground level.  "It's not going to look any different than other sites.  We have a funny site, in the way that our site is designed.  Typically sites are build 1/2 down and 2/3 up.   Ours is built 2/d down and 1/3 up.  Part of the work will be to take a look at the next 20 years [and decide] how we should build and fill those cells."

He says you can expect to see notices about the open houses popping up in about 6 months, and the results presented to council by the end of 2011.  "We have 10 - 12 years of capacity, but it can often take 3, 4, or 5 years to get [the process] through and that is a bit tight.  We certainly don't want to end up being a city without a landfill, because then you start to look like the city of Toronto or Vancouver that both have landfills without capacity and are sitting and looking at their options.  The public consultation part of the process could really slow things up, and we want to make sure that we leave ourselves enough time."

Another focus of the Landfill Master Plan will be evaluation of how Carbon Dioxide Gas is managed at the facility in the future.  "From the environmental perspective there are two areas of concern.  One is Leachate, that's the water that bleeds out of the waste.  And we have requirements as to how we can deal with that, because it is nasty water with a variety of different types of contaminants.  The other one that has become more topical right now is greenhouse gases, and carbon footprint.  In Alberta there is something called the Specified Gas Emitters Act.  We currently have to report the amount of gas we produce, and we produce 60,000 tones of gas from our landfill on an annual basis."  A reduction of 12% will be required by law when the city begin producing 100,000 tones annually, and Schaaf added that greenhouse gas management will also be a focus of the Landfill Master Plan.

AECOM Canada of Edmonton was awarded the $699,485.00 contract.

The massive price tag is attached to a massive project which will function as school ground to two high schools, and a community recreational area.

The project will see 1,140 trees, three baseball diamonds, four soccer fields, eight tennis courts, four outdoor basketball courts, 4,430 metres of pathway, a human sundial, and large storm water retention pond.

The project was funded from the 2008-2017 Capital Improvement Program, but has multiple apportioned funding sources:

-City of Lethbridge Parks            $775,204.00

-Lethbridge Public Library           $77,768.67

-Catholic Central High School      $80,859.42

-Chinook High School                 $100,100.67

-Real Estate and Land Dept.       $634,899.75

-Contingency Fund                    $167,103.24

Five year old "Beaver Scout" Mark Uwazny graciously opened the door to council chambers for Bob Tarleck Monday (March 8, 2010) afternoon, and in full "Beaver" attire, presented the mayor with a red wristband that symbolized the Good Turn he'd done.

In return he asked our Mayor to pass on the wristband when he did a good turn for someone else.

Before the council meeting was over, Tarleck promised to speak to the Premier at an upcoming meeting and discuss a Social Housing In Action project which had been denied.

It's Scouts Canada's National Good Turn Week, and the youngest members of the scout family will be out in our community doing nice things for people like you.

LETHBRIDGE- February was a very good month for housing starts in our city, up 43.9-per cent over the same time last year.

Warm weather is getting a big part of the credit for the 94-single family and 24-multi-family starts, as it's simply easier to dig a basement when the ground has thawed, however Jean Greer-McCarthy with the local branch of the Canadian Home Builders Association also noted that high consumer confidence is definitely helping.

Greer-McCarthy added that they're forecasting a 5-per cent increase in housing starts over the course of 2010, leading to yet another solid year for our city.

Greer-McCarthy also noted that our city has a good mix of everything from starter homes to high end homes, council helping to develop more work/live units and mixed use buildings.