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Lethbridge city council hears update on downtown Watch program

Members of Lethbridge City Council getting a first quarter update this week on the new Watch program.

The downtown safety initiative got underway May 1st.

Watch Manager Jeff Hansen says so far, things have gone very well, noting the program has made a big difference in a short period of time. “I think the most important thing is we’ve built relationships. Relationships with the community, business owners and their employees, as well as those people we meet day in and day out on the streets, the homeless and disadvantaged.”

Hansen says they’ve just added 19 new Watch volunteers, bringing the entire contingent to close to 40. Those new volunteers are undergoing training right now.

He told Council he feels The Watch has been very effective in just a very short period of time. “It’s serving Lethbridge well.” Hansen told Councillors of the of the Watch volunteers are putting in 4o to 50 hours a week.

Hansen says he thinks even some of the naysayers of the Watch initiative are starting to come around. “I think they’re seeing us as a good resource of the City and I think they’re understanding more of what the Watch is. We’re not law enforcement, we’re the eyes and ears for Lethbridge Police, Fire & EMS, and social service agencies.”

Lethbridge City Council approved funding for the Watch program last fall in an effort to boost safety in the downtown core.

Patrick Siedlecki
Patrick Siedlecki
Pat has been a mainstay in the CJOC News department from the time the station launched in 2007. He's been in the position of News Director since then and has been anchoring daily news casts as well as reporting and working behind the scenes. Community is important to him and keeping CJOC listeners and readers informed about what's happening across southern Alberta and beyond. Pat has been in radio broadcasting for the past 24 years, starting in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island in 1997 and then moving up island to Nanaimo for another few years before heading to Lethbridge in 2007. Pat grew up in the small Saskatchewan farming town of Foam Lake. After high school, he went to Western Academy Broadcasting College (WABC) in Saskatoon prior to moving to the island. Pat also spent several years broadcasting hockey in the BCHL as well as seven years as the radio voice of the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the WHL. Pat has been working at Cornerstone Funeral Home in Lethbridge as a Certified Life Celebrant and Funeral Assistant since 2016. News and sports have always been Pat's passion from the time he was a teenager and he's always been grateful to have had the opportunity to make that part of what's been a fun and long radio career!
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