Autumn always seems to be one of the busiest times of the year, doesn’t it? The same is true with your City Council so I thought I’d break down a list of what we have on the go at the moment.
•CUI’s Future: On October 22, KPMG and McMillan LLP presented preliminary reports to Council on our options for CUI. They gave us five suggestions and we are currently digging into the implications of those options before we choose a path forward. Upcoming meetings and decisions about CUI will be announced on our website.
•Remembrance Day: The annual service is November 11 at 10:45 a.m. at the cenotaph in Anniversary Park. Please join us to pay your respects to our veterans.
•Seniors’ Housing Roundtable: We had a great discussion about seniors’ housing on October 29. Thank you to all who attended; there was great energy in the room! Our next step is to establish a committee to support Council, which will focus on aging in place.
•Budget: We had our preliminary budget presentation on October 30. Council and I are pleased that Administration has found savings and efficiencies, and we will continue the budget deliberations throughout November. What you said about how you wanted to ‘slice the pie’ had a big impact on the proposal, so thank you for your participation.
•Amazing Chestermere Report: We have been expecting this report for several months and are pleased that it will be presented to Council in November with suggestions for next steps. Stay tuned!
•Winter Lights Festival: Hitch up your sleigh and join in the community celebration on November 24 to kick off the festive season! Our staff add more light displays every year and we look forward to seeing you there as we ‘light up the night.’
•Mayor’s Breakfast: The Chamber of Commerce is once again hosting the Mayor’s breakfast on November 22 at which I will be giving a ‘state of the union’ address. We will be streaming the speech live on the City’s Facebook page if you’d like to tune in.
•Dave Mikkelsen Award: Each year, we ask youth (or organizations that work with youth) to submit an idea for how to make our community better. The winners receive $1000 to put towards their initiative. We are currently accepting nominations at chestermere.ca/youthaward
•Advocacy Work: In the last few months, we have had some excellent meetings with other mid-sized cities and Rocky View County. Building relationships with our neighbours is important to us and we are pleased to continue this work.
This is all in addition to meeting with you, our residents! Please feel free to stop in, join us at Coffee with Council or send us a note about what’s on your mind. We look forward to hearing from you.
Mayor Chalmers
mchalmers@chestermere.ca
