Dear editor:
I attended the premiere of the Cochrane Environmental Action Committee’s (CEAC) video, When Two Worlds Collide, last Friday night at the RancheHouse and heard some of the candidates’ presentations in response to questions created by Cochrane students.
I was very impressed by the video and want to compliment all those involved for creating a great piece of journalism. I’m sure it can be used time and time again, effectively, both here and in other similar-sized communities across Canada.
As I walked out into a comfortable fall evening that night, I couldn’t help reflect on a few other things in our Cochrane environment that I think we will need to focus on.
The first is related to sound. Having moved from an inner-city community in Calgary with the constant din of traffic, construction, airplanes, sirens, barking dogs and outdoor music, I find it calming to be able to go for a walk at twilight and hear hardly anything.
The next is my ability to stretch my eyeballs, so to speak, and do that beyond looking at buildings, roads and man-made recreational areas. Don’t get me wrong, man-made recreational areas are important, but I’m talking about visual ambience and for me the city views I had in Calgary didn’t offer the comfortable, relaxed feeling I get by looking down many a Cochrane street to see open fields rising out of the valley or the mountains poking above the foothills to the west.
These are two aspects of living in Cochrane that are provided by where we live, the size of our community and the style of the people who have chosen to live here...so far.
However, the pressures for growth are here and will be even more prevalent in the years to come. Many of our future citizens in the town will, like many present citizens, desire the smaller town life, but I believe they will bring with them their demand for big-city services to be close at hand. Can the council of the day refuse to provide such services for a growing community? Absolutely not; however, they can focus on how the growth is governed and administrated, and be sensitive to what can be properly preserved so Cochrane does not take on the cookie-cutter look of so many burgeoning smaller communities in our rather affluent province.
I am hopeful - no, more than that - trusting that our new council will act appropriately to govern the progress of Cochrane and include in their purview the need to retain these two seemly intangible things that positively influence our wellbeing. From my experience living in large cities, this will not be an easy task.
Jack Blair
