Break out the champagne.
Ring the bells. Tell the mayor and council we love them.
It’s celebration time.
No, I didn’t win a lottery.
And no, I didn’t win a vice-president’s job with Alberta Health Care, so there’s no golden handshake awaiting me there after a few months.
This is bigger than any of those.
This is the biggest, the highest number of pages, the most ads and all that stuff in the history of the mighty Cochrane Eagle.
Count ‘em.
Count them over and over if you wish, but there’s 80 pages in the newspaper you’re holding, every page different.
It’s our first annual Best of Cochrane promotion and not only was it a huge success, it was great fun.
You readers picked the best steak, the best place for that first kiss, best pizza and all sorts of stuff, and while we are the first to admit it was anything but scientific, it was great fun and we’ll no doubt do it again.
So thanks to the many, many readers who took the time to answer the survey and also to the Eagle staff who rose to challenge and produced our biggest paper in history out on time.
Thanks everyone.
Now into the real world.
There’s a piece of property across from Cochrane Toyota that’s begging to be developed.
It’s about 13 acres and is zoned for commercial use so everything seems cool on that front.
The owner wants to sell it, there’s a company that wants to buy it, but nothing is happening.
The potential buyer is Calgary Co-op and it wants to put in a big complex there complete with grocery store, liquor store and gas bar and would employ about 300 people.
Makes perfect sense, you say.
Then why hasn’t it happened?
The planned grocery store is larger than allowed, but that shouldn’t be a problem for council to change since it happens all the time.
Why wouldn’t the town be welcoming Co-op with open arms?
Why wouldn’t the town have the attitude that if you’re bringing 300 jobs to our community then we want you?
Why wouldn’t the town have the attitude of what can we do to make this happen?
Is the town’s reluctance to quickly approve such a plan because it wants to protect other commercial ventures?
The town once said it has to check with neighbours before it approves the Co-op plan and, if that makes sense, then check with the neighbours in Fireside and Riversong who have to come all the way to downtown Cochrane for a quart of milk.
Have a public hearing and ask them if they want a Co-op outlet in their ‘hood.
If nothing else, we’d know what was happening. Or not.
Speaking of developments and all that neat stuff.
In light of the outlets that are at least rumoured to be coming to the Quarry, has there been any tax concessions on that property?
Like has the town had to offer any property tax easements of any kind?
For example, a few years ago Airdrie offered property-tax relief for industry and commercial development in that city, and I wonder if Cochrane has made similar concessions here?
It’s not a negative thing. It worked in Airdrie so would likely work here.
