As our recent coverage indicates, it's been a busy and productive few years in the hamlet of Langdon.
This week's front-page story is about the ground-breaking for the hamlet's junior/senior high school, which is slated to open in time for the 2023-24 school year. The Grade 7-12 school has been a long time coming, and the result of years of advocacy and lobbying by residents of the community. It's great to see the long-awaited project finally get underway.
Readers may recall that last week, we reported on more than $470,000 worth of improvements that are coming to Langdon Park this year, including the construction of tennis and basketball courts.
And the week before that, we reported on the hamlet's new $9.3 million fire hall and emergency services building.
There's also a brief mention in this week's paper about Langdon's new library that is in the works, and we've written in the past about the multi-million-dollar recreation facility that will eventually be built in the hamlet, as well as last year's completion of the $4-million Iron Horse Fields baseball diamonds and Centre Street improvements.
All these projects are happening as Langdon continues to attract a steady increase in population. With ongoing residential development, the hamlet will potentially have a population north of 10,000 in the next decade.
It begs the question, why is Langdon not its own town?
According to Google, Langdon used to be a village, but opted to dissolve as a municipality in the 1940s. That means there is no mayor of Langdon, and the community's municipal government is technically Rocky View County, which is responsible for waste collection, snow removal, and other municipal operations.
As a hamlet, Langdon is represented by a representative on Rocky View County council, Al Schule. He argues the current status provides benefits to residents, such as lower taxation and service-sharing agreements with the County. He pointed out there's no population threshold in Alberta for having to incorporate, as even Sherwood Park, with approximately 70,000 residents, is technically a hamlet.
But it's interesting that Langdon is now much more populous than other municipalities we cover, such as Crossfield, Irricana, and Beiseker, who each remain their own municipality.
