Council’s summer meeting break comes to an end next month with regular meetings resuming on Sept. 9.
Mayor Jeff Genung is chomping at the bit to get back to business as there is a lot on deck for council this fall.
While he was able to get away this summer for a little R&R, it wasn’t all camping and margaritas for the town’s top official.
He spent some of his time speaking to provincial officials about the Highway 1A and Highway 22 interchange project. Currently, the project is No. 10 on the provincial priority list, but Genung said the point difference between one and 10 is small. He added the continued work on the design phase gives him optimism it might get the funding to proceed.
He also took a trip to Waterloo, Ont. to visit that community’s innovation centre. The trip was a fact-finding mission to gather information for Cochrane’s proposed technology and innovation hub that is hoped to be completed by next fall.
For that to happen, council has to approve the project’s budget, which is expected to go to the table this fall.
“Council will be receiving a report on costing on the incubation side of things so I am hoping that comes back favourable and council will see fit to add a floor to (the Transit Hub) building and then get a concept drawn and hopefully get a foundation on the ground this fall prior to winter so we can hit the ground running next year,” he said.
He added the facility, which will be part of the Transit Hub, will be able to piggyback on that project’s budget bringing costs down.
“We have a real opportunity to make something more of that site. It’s not a typical office space we’re looking for. It’s pretty barebones,” said Genung, implying the costing shouldn’t be as high as typical office space.
“You need a bathroom, open space and power, pretty basic,” he said.
While Genung has been touting the innovation centre as a potential boon for business development in Cochrane, completion of the facility and Transit Hub, will kick off the long-envisioned tri-site plan.
“To see something get built on one of the tri-sites and prove to the community that wasn’t just a study to sit on a shelf,” he said, adding the project will lead to better community connectivity and downtown improvement.
“I think we need to focus within for a bit instead of growing out.”
Finding solutions to traffic congestion has been top of mind for the community. Genung said while the town waits for news on the interchange project, which would hopefully allow for the widening of Highway 22 to Sunset Boulevard, there are plans in the works for better traffic flow.
“Something I am looking forward to this fall is seeing a design on widening Centre Avenue from Griffin to 1A,” said Genung of the plan to build a four-lane thoroughfare through town. That plan is essential to help with traffic flow after the Jack Tennant Memorial Bridge opens and begins funelling traffic to Griffin Road.
Included in that idea is upgrading the intersections along 1A to remove the lights to allow traffic to move more freely.
“We need the province for that but we’ve already started to collect off-site levies for those,” he said.
Development is always a contentious issue as the town has seen immense growth over the past decade.
Genung said that will be a factor when council reviews the proposed developments from Towers Trail and the Mount St. Franciscan Friars.
“Feedback has been no more growth until we can drive around our community and I hear that.,” said Genung, adding he ran on the platform of “planned and managed growth.
“What we are seeing now at around three or four per cent growth is manageable. It’s growth, it’s not contraction, it’s positive but these developments coming on could tip that,” said Genung, adding council will have to decide how to strike the right balance.
“What do we say yes to and no to. It will be a potentially contentious decision that will be before council this fall. Road issues will be heavy considerations.
“We need balance for the future. We don’t want to close the door completely. There are a lot of communities in Alberta that would die to have a development,” he said, adding that it’s possible developers from those proposals could come forward with traffic solutions.
“That is what I am interested in seeing. So perhaps we say yes to a little bit more to get short-term help faster than what we could if we had to pay for it all ourselves,” Genung said.
Every fall is when council begins meeting to set its budget priorities for the coming year.
“I want to set a meeting for council soon, getting us together to say, ‘we’re midterm, A let’s get a report card on what we’ve done and I would like to hear from all of them about what they want to accomplish in the next two years,” he said.
Genung knows the wish list is long, but with transit already paid for he is confident council can get a lot done within the town’s means.
“I am not saying we throw all caution to the wind and raise taxes to the roof. I think we can do it all in the means that we have without breaking the bank or having our hand out to the community,” he said.
