Maintaining your home is just like maintaining your city – it takes perseverance, time, effort and money!

I had the pleasure the last week to spend time working on a number of house projects that needed to be completed before the fall and winter season.  The deck needed a couple of boards replaced and required a new coat of stain, the sump pump needed replacing and the back garden needed an upgrade.  I could have ignored this work and simply enjoyed the summer days  – at least the few that we’ve had this season.  But I didn’t.  Why?  Because by maintaining the deck, the 28 year old structure will continue to serve until the time arrives to replace the entire deck with more modern maintenance free materials.  In the case of the sump pump, the motor actually failed and a new pump was required. Now given that our house is located in Deer Ridge and how often our sump pump is required, without replacing our pump would soon have led to a basement full of water.  Upgrading our back garden however was simply a personal decision to make our back yard even more beautiful.  A choice we made because we love our home and are proud of it.

Maintaining the City of St. Albert is not that much different.  The City too needs to maintain it’s current infrastructure so that the full useful life of the structure can be realized by the community.  An on-going requirement to replace old and failed infrastructure is also required to ensure our city continues to operate as required.  And finally, to ensure our community continues to be the beautiful city that we all know and love and are intensely proud of, beautification projects need to be created and completed.

So whether you’re repairing, maintaining or beautifying your home or your community, these decisions all require the same elements – perseverance, time, effort and money.  The unfortunate reality of life is, however, to build the home or community that meets your expectations or fulfills your dreams, a little more perseverance, time, effort and money is required each year!

When all is said and done though, the perseverance, time, effort and money are all worth the result!