Skip to content

Park sign wording finalized by Lac La Biche County council vote

It’s just a little grammatical conjunction — but it has caused political dysfunction for a Lac La Biche County councilor.

LAC LA BICHE - It’s just a little grammatical conjunction — but it has caused political dysfunction for a Lac La Biche County councillor, leading all the way to an official council vote.

An ampersand, representing the word ‘and’ has been added to a permanent sign at the Richard Devonian Park on Lac La Biche’s Main Street. The small municipal park was upgraded and renovated in the first phase of the Lac La Biche Main Street Streetscape plan in 2021. Part of the $900,000 upgrade to the greenspace that has been part of the community for more than 30 years, was a new sign commemorating the Richard family who donated the parcel of land to the municipality more than 50 years ago. The greenspace also recognizes Alberta’s Devonian Foundation, a not-for-profit that recognizes and funds similar greenspaces across the province. Half of the green-space upgrade in 2021 was covered through grant funding.

Prior to the upgrades, the area was known as the Richard Devonian Park. The new sign, however, says: Richard & Devonian Park.

And that one little ‘and’ addition has been a big issue for Lac La Biche County Ward 1 Coun. Darlene Beniuk. She has been questioning the new, metal sign’s wording since it was put into place at the end of summer.

“I just want to make it right,” says the councillor, who has spear-headed a campaign to correct what she sees as a grammatical error.

Family input

In recent weeks, members of the Richard family have been contacted by municipal officials for their thoughts on the wording.

In a report tabled by County officials last week, it states that family members are actually the ones who asked for new wording, The report says that family members requested to have words added to the park name so it wouldn’t seem like a first name- Richard and last name-Devonian.

“They did express some concern that it being “Richard Devonian,” it could be seen as a full name of someone and could be misconstrued, so they wanted it to be clear it was a family name and the Devonian group,” said Brian Shapka, the County’s associate CAO of infrastructure. “The Richard family has control to do that.”

Shapka said in retrospect, perhaps a hyphen could have been added, or some other style to separate the words … but the family is happy with the new sign.

And a vote is needed

After seeing the report at a recent Lac La Biche County council meeting, Beniuk continued to suggest new wording options, saying it could be “the Richard Family and the Devonian Foundation Park”

At the meeting, councillor Lorin Tkachuk said if the family is fine with the current wording, that should be the end of the debate.

“If they family says “and” … that’s good enough for me,” he said, explaining that is only concern in looking for the best result was “not to offend the family in any way.”

Despite the report’s conclusions and a general feeling that the issue was addressed, Beniuk pushed for an official decision on the wording, crafting a motion to change the name and the sign to “The Richard Family & Devonian Foundation Park.”

The motion was defeated by council.


Rob McKinley

About the Author: Rob McKinley

Rob has been in the media, marketing and promotion business for 30 years, working in the public sector, as well as media outlets in major metropolitan markets, smaller rural communities and Indigenous-focused settings.
Read more



Comments

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks