Mayor’s Message September

After an eventful summer, it’s gearing up to be a busy fall here at City Hall.
I am pleased to tell you that we have made progress on two key priorities from our Strategic Plan. At the September 4th Council Meeting, we made decisions regarding both Webster Industrial Park and initiating the process for alternative options regarding CUI.
After a thorough review of the Webster project, Council decided to sell the lands rather than proceed with developing them.
We do believe that Webster is still very viable for a private developer and are continuing to work to increase the non-residential tax base in Chestermere.
Since the start of our term we have been involved in ongoing discussions with the CUI Board, working towards the end goal of delivering safe and sustainable services to our community. We have engaged both KPMG and McMillan LLP to assist Council in this process and look forward to their report towards the end of October. All Council members have now been appointed to the CUI Board.
In other news, we were thrilled to participate in our first Chestermere Fall Fair parade as new Council. Thank you to everyone for the warm welcome.
I also had the opportunity to hear some of your thoughts about land use changes for cannabis legalization and our 2019-2022 budget considerations.
I hope you enjoyed our new take on engaging in the Budget process and the ‘slice the pie’ campaign. There’s still time to participate on the website until September 17. We look forward to seeing all of the feedback.
After a summer break, we will back hosting our monthly Coffee with Council on September 15 at the Rec Centre. Our new CAO, Bernie Morton will be there and I hope you give him a wonderful Chestermere welcome. We will also be serving some pie in keeping with our budget engagement theme. Hope to see you there for pie and coffee!
Finally, the kids are back in school and I know this can be a busy time of year for families. Peace Officers will be increasing patrols and enforcement in our school zones, and monitoring crosswalks. We are asking that you use extra caution in school zones so we can keep everyone safe.
On behalf of Council, please stay safe out there!