ADMINISTRATION

The lands of the Province of Alberta known as the County of Newell has come a long way since settlers began settling the area at the turn of the century. Many people have worked very hard over the years to make the area the prosperous area that we all enjoy today.

Before the area known as the County of Newell became a County, many municipal organizations and re-organizations had taken place. Until 1935, the County of Newell area was comprised of 8 small Improvement Districts. In 1935 the Province of Alberta Municipal Affairs amalgamated the 8 small Improvement Districts to form a single Improvement District called Improvement District No. 123, with Mr G. Anderson as the Municipal Inspector. Just over 3 years later, another change was made by Municipal Affairs that saw I.D. No. 123 change to I.D. No. 28. The history books do not record why the I.D. number was changed from 123 to 28.

In 1952, the Eastern Irrigation District School Division No.44 and Improvement District No. 28, joined forces and made application to the Province of Alberta Municipal Affairs to amalgamate the two governing bodies and incorporate what we now know as the County of Newell No.4. on January 1, 1953. The newly formed County of Newell No.4 was then responsible for Education, Agricultural Service Board and Public Works. The first elections as a County took place in 1953.

The County of Newell No.4 continued to operate the rural school system complete with a School Board from 1953 until 1988. In 1988 the Province of Alberta changed the education system and amalgamated several school districts across the Province. The County of Newell No.4 School District and the Brooks School District were then combined to form what is now called the Grasslands Regional School Division No.6.

Many changes took place at the end of the 80's and the start of the 90's. Probably most visible to County residents is the equipment being used by County Staff to maintain County roads and control weeds. Growing up in the County, many of us made fun of the age of the County equipment as it passed by our rural homes. It was well known that the equipment was old and could stand to be replaced. Old equipment is no longer the case at the County of Newell. During the past decade, all of the old equipment has been replaced by state-of-the-art road building and maintenance machines. It was determined that it would cost County tax payers a lot less to operate new equipment than it would be to maintain old decrepit machinery.

With the ushering in of the Information Age during the 80's and 90's, forward thinking Members of Council began funding technology in the County that has effected every department of the County of Newell No.4 including Administration, Agricultural Services and Public Works. Administration has moved from manual bookkeeping to a state-of-the-art digital computer accounting system, digital file storage system, an internet web site along e-mail communications. Public Works & Agricultural Service Board are linked to a County operated Global Information System at the Administration Building that records live data from graders, spray trucks, mowers and most County vehicles to enable maps to be produced along with other digital information that makes maintaining the County a lot more efficient. A quick glance at a computer screen is now all that is needed to instantly know where County equipment is located and what job it is performing. Maps are then drawn that enable Public Works and the A.S.B. to draw up budgets for upcoming years.

PUBLIC WORKS

With the formation of one large Improvement District from the smaller 8 Districts, construction on improved roads began in earnest. By the end of 1952, the District was able to boast several miles of, what at the time, was considered "high quality graveled roads".

It is hard for most of us to imagine what it would have been like to be there the day the original prairie sod was turned to begin building the first road in the area. The equipment used in those days is primitive by today's standards. Most of the original roads were built using two horse slips and four horse fresnos. The equipment was horse drawn and the operators were forced to stand on metal that sometimes reached temperatures that would easily boil an egg. Unlike today's $300,000 plus graders that have a comfortable cab and all the power the operator requires to groom a road, road grader operators of the past used a contraption constructed of 3 pieces heavy duty angle iron, bolted together, with a plywood plank over top where the operator would stand. With this machine, the operator would do his best to groom the roads that were often little more than a prairie trail. The angle iron contraption was later replaced with what was called a "horse drawn road maintainer". The road maintainer was the first piece of equipment used to care for roads that began to take the shape of what we now know as a road grader. Even with the purchase of the newer horse drawn maintainers, roads still continued to be rough at best with very few roads being graveled and wooden culverts only being installed in the areas that had the most problems with drainage.

As road building technology improved, so did the roads in the County of Newell No.4. Between 1953 and 1981 many roads had been improved substantially. The total roads that had hard surface amounted to 61 km, hard surface overlay 72km, oil treated roads 146km, graveled roads 443 km and improved dirt roads accounted for 131 km. In 1981 there were 1200 plus kilometers of roads in the County of Newell No.4.

During the same time frame, 261 km of roadside drainage were also constructed. The drainage system was required to reduce damage to roads during the natural spring run-off. The drainage canals were then linked to the E.I.D.'s irrigation canal system and the Bow River so that the run-off water could be used to irrigate more lands in the County.

By the County’s 50th Anniversary, the amount of pavement covering the roads in the County had increased to 469 kilometers. There are an additional 1907 kilometers of graveled and oil base roads.

The 80's era saw several changes take place to the roads in the County of Newell No.4. During the 80's, the County and the Province funded the construction of at least one paved road to ever community located within the County of Newell boundaries. The Provincial Government had also paved Highway 36 that runs north/south through the centre of the County. Having the TransCanada Highway, Highway 36 and a paved road to each community, transportation within the County had finally reached a satisfactory level to handle the volumes of high tech vehicles of the new millennium.

In 2001 more changes were in store for the County Road System. In 2001 the Province on Alberta took over the maintenance and operation of all paved and non-paved Secondary roads. However, this did not mean that the County of Newell No. 4 would not be getting any more pavement, instead, it meant that the County could then concentrate on paving roads in the County that would not normally be covered under a Provincial paving program. In 2002, the County of Newell paved large portions of One Tree Road, Antelope Creek Road and the service road that runs from Lakeside Farms to Cassils Road.

In 2003 the County of Newell No.4 Council implemented a paving tax that would gather monies for future paving projects throughout all 10 County Divisions.