Working to make Chestermere Amazing

Chestermere’s Mayor and City Council held a roundtable discussion June 25 to find out what residents thought could be done to make Chestermere amazing.
“We were extremely pleased with the turnout from the community,” said Chestermere’s Mayor Marshall Chalmers. “To have this broad discussion about what we thought or what the community thought would be something that we could continue and enhance and make Chestermere amazing.”
He said that it was important for council to get out of the echo chamber of city hall and hear directly from the community about what they want to see in their city.
“It was really interesting the group was very engaged and threw all kinds of ideas out…but it seemed to gravitate towards the umbrella of lots of need around recreation, that type of thing,” said Chalmers.
The facilitators of the roundtable will be preparing a report to present to council later this summer on the results of the roundtable.
Chalmers said that he and council are looking forward to hearing what the report recommends. His hope is that it will be presented at the July 16 council meeting, but nothing is scheduled yet.
“It’s certainly gives us a lot to kind of work with and start filtering and move forward on to see where it goes,” he said.
If the energy in the room is anything to go by, Chalmers thinks they are headed in the right direction by engaging the community like this.
“We’ve got such a great community here,” he said.
“It was really nice to hear the energy and the positivity as the discussions unfolded,” said Chalmers.
Although the roundtable was put on by council, Chalmers said that this is a community initiative.
The goal of the roundtable was to determine if there is something the community can challenge themselves to do to help move Chestermere forwards.
This continues council’s stated commitment to be open and transparent with the community.
“This is all tied back to the strategic plan and our commitment to engage the public, engage the community stay connected, hear their voice,” said Chalmers.
Chalmers said that from what he saw at the roundtable, they are succeeding in engaging the community.
There was representation from both individuals and community groups at the roundtable.
“There was a great cross section there,” said Chalmers.
One individual that stood out to Chalmers was a youth representative at the meeting.
“We had a just a brilliant teenager there that provided that perspective from a young adult,” he said.
He was really happy to have someone there who was able to provide comments for the community’s youth.
“Overall really pleased with the such positive comments in the room,” said Chalmers.
Since the roundtable, Chalmers said that he’s already been receiving follow comments from the people who attended the meeting.
“I’ve also received follow up comments from the people that attended how appreciative they were to have the opportunity and thought there was a lot of positive energy and that we’re on the right track,” he said.
Chalmers said that it’s good to hear that feedback and confirmation that they’re heading in the right direction.