The largest village in Alberta may be different in the coming months.

The village of Nobleford is taking strides to gain official town status after 100 years as a village.

This potential change comes during their centennial year and as mayor Don McDowell says, is something they took a long look at before pursuing.

“In the south here we’ve seen a few cases where towns have slid backwards if you will and we wanted to make sure that we were on good solid ground which we are,” said McDowell.

The town of Nobleford has been eligible for town status after reaching the population level in 2011, but felt they needed more time to become a stable town.

According to McDowell, one of the main reasons for becoming a town is that more services will be willing to come to a town rather than a village.

“We need retail business. For retail business the optics of a town sounds better than if you were setting up your business in a village. And the town has won out every time we asked that question.”

If Nobleford becomes a town, Lethbridge may see a little less of the Nobleford residents as more and more services come to the town, but McDowell doesn’t see that happening any time soon.

“Lethbridge is our big brother. We try and thank them every chance we get because they are an absolutely great neighbor. But people from Nobleford use the recreational facilities in Lethbridge like pools and arenas. We, in turn shop and utilize services‎ in Lethbridge. I see no change in any of this.”

There is also another big thing happening in Nobleford this year.

The town was able to budget in a gift for residents over the last few years allowing the village to completely eliminate their property taxes for this calendar year.

A gift like this left Nobleford resident Jolene Kregel very happy.

“It was a nice little perk to have this year. It didn’t make the biggest difference because we do have the lowest property taxes in Alberta, but that the village was able to offer this to all of the residents here was really cool.”

Mayor McDowell says this idea came from wanting to do something very special for the residents of Nobleford in their centennial year.

As for their town status, the village will continue to engage in conversation with the residents starting with an event on Feb. 28, to see if this is something they will continue pursuing.