About 40 stakeholders and community members attended the Aging Well in the City of Chestermere workshop held at Lakeside Golf Club Oct. 28.
“Aging Well, we see as an important part of a healthy Chestermere,” said Tanya Galey, Assistant Director of Community Services with the city.
“I feel it went well,” she said, “I’m quite pleased with it for sure.”
The purpose of the workshop was to follow up on the Aging in Place conference from earlier in the fall and to expand that conversation.
“It’s an important topic of conversation across the country,” she said.
The workshop was tasked with answering the question, how do we age well?
“That is a broad spectrum look,” said Director of Community Services Donelda Laing.
“People talked about that,” she said, “from housing to transportation to recreation to walkability.”
Resident Val Gertzen attended out of a curiosity to learn what is happening in the community.
“I though she did a great job of covering…what do people want,” said Gertzen.
Her interest is in what can be done in the near future in the city.
She would like to see outdoor fitness and workout parks installed in Chestermere.
“That would be good for all ages,” said Gertzen.
“Getting input from residents really helps us get that snapshot of the community,” said Laing
They can then look at how the city and Community Services can best work in the city to address those needs.
Community Services will be taking thee feedback from the workshop and compiling it into a report that will be shared with the event’s participants.
They will also be doing more research about the feasibility of some of the suggestions.
“I loved the one about the moving sidewalk because it’s creative and unique,” said Laing.
She said that Chestermere may not get a moving sidewalk but what that suggestion tells her is that people in the community prioritize walkable neighbourhoods.
“So from that creative and unique perspective we can maybe see things a little differently about how things are connected in the community,” said Laing.
Facilitator Maureen McKenna was brought in to guide the discussion process. Self-described as an energy catalyst, McKenna felt the day went very well.
“Unless there’s follow through there will be no changes,” she said.
From her read of the energy in the room McKenna believes there will be that follow through in Chestermere.
“I would suspect, having listened to the presentations…that coming back in five years there will be many elements…in place,” she said.
