September 23, 2013, was a busy day at the Chestermere Town Hall; 22 people filed nomination papers for the 2013 Municipal Election. Three individuals filed nominations for the position of the Mayor and 19 filed for the position of Councillor.
Although originally it looked as though in addition to Matthews, there would be two other individuals running for mayor, this was not the case. By the time the official candidate list was made public 24 hours after nominations were closed, two of the candidates who had submitted nomination forms for mayor had withdrawn. This chain of events resulted in Matthews being named Mayor once again for the upcoming four year term.
Matthews, a resident of Chestermere for 15 years was Chestermere’s first full time mayor. She began as councillor from 2004-2007 and was then elected as mayor in 2007 & again in 2010. This will be her third term. Matthews is thrilled to be back for another term because she wants to continue to be a part of crafting Chestermere’s future.
Chestermere has some major projects in the works and Matthews believes that her strong leadership skills combined with her knowledge of Chestermere’s history are vital for planning the future; which means understanding where we came from and a vision of how that fits into the Chestermere of today, we can keep up with the growth pressures, yet still maintaining the uniqueness of the place that we call home.
According to growth analysis, Chestermere’s population will be at 22,000 residents within the next five to seven years. “If we don’t get this right, we live with the results forever”, says Matthews of the plans for development directly adjacent to the City. This growth is going to bring the opportunity for business development, but Matthews says that what is important to focus on is making sure that business development is sustainable and well supported.
Matthews says that a large part of what the current council has been working on are plans for a 2300 acre development west of Rainbow Road and a multi-use recreation centre, as well as continuing to build public lake access. “It takes experience to know how to pull these projects together without impacting tax payers” says Matthews. The Anniversary Park expansion was done entirely on grants & corporate sponsorships and will be completed in 2014. “Sunset beach will be next” says Matthews.
Along with Mayor, Chestermere town Council has room for six councilors. Residents will have the task of choosing from 19 possible candidates.
According to the Town of Chestermere website, the list of candidates for councillor are: Greg Amoruso; Ramona Bagley; Shali Baziuk; Heather Davies; Thomas Fleger; Paul Graham ; Steve Grande; Stu Hutchison; Jaspal Singh Lall; Jennifer Massig; Mardi Oel; Kofi Poku; Troy Prusky; Ada Rawlins; Jason Schaffer; Gail Smith; Christopher Steeves; Rob Trung; and Patrick Watson.
Election Day is Monday, October 21, 2013 and the polling station is at the Chestermere Recreation Centre. Advanced Voting is open on Thursday, October 10 and Saturday, October 19, 2013.
