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Bow Island mayor looks ahead to new year

Posted on December 12, 2017 by 40 Mile Commentator

By Jeremy Appel

Commentator/Courier

Bow Island Mayor Gordon Reynolds says the new town council is working well together so far.
“Haven’t had any fist fights or anything,” he joked.
“We’ve only had a couple of meetings since the election. Council has done a little bit of training and whatnot, and some of us attended the AMA convention a couple weeks ago in Calgary and had opportunities for more education there and networking with other communities and councils.”
Reynolds said council’s major priorities will be set in January when it does its strategic planning.
“We do that at the start at every term,” he said. “Incumbents or not, it’s still a brand new council. We want to agree as a group what we’ll focus on.
“There’s always emerging issues as well.”
In the meetings since the Oct. 16 election, council has begun working on its three-year operating and five-year capital budgets, but there will be a more complete picture once the strategic plan is completed.
They’re also working on a collaboration framework with neighbouring 40 Mile County as part of an inter-municipal development plan.
In the coming weeks, council will find out who’s getting contracts for the southern Alberta Registered Apprenticeship Program, as well as the provincial renewable energy program the government is soliciting bids for.
“There are a couple major projects that are quite close to Bow Island and we’ll be working on preparing for the possible spin-offs from those projects, both during the construction and operational phases,” said Reynolds.
Town council is also continuing its advocacy for the twinning of Highway 3, which still has 220 km of only two lanes.
In the new year, the town is Bow Island mayor looks ahead
Jeremy Appel
Commentator/Courier
Bow Island Mayor Gordon Reynolds says the new town council is working well together so far.
“Haven’t had any fist fights or anything,” he joked.
“We’ve only had a couple of meetings since the election. Council has done a little bit of training and whatnot, and some of us attended the AMA convention a couple weeks ago in Calgary and had opportunities for more education there and networking with other communities and councils.”
Reynolds said council’s major priorities will be set in January when it does its strategic planning.
“We do that at the start at every term,” he said. “Incumbents or not, it’s still a brand new council. We want to agree as a group what we’ll focus on.
“There’s always emerging issues as well.”
In the meetings since the Oct. 16 election, council has begun working on its three-year operating and five-year capital budgets, but there will be a more complete picture once the strategic plan is completed.
They’re also working on a collaboration framework with neighbouring 40 Mile County as part of an inter-municipal development plan.
In the coming weeks, council will find out who’s getting contracts for the southern Alberta Registered Apprenticeship Program, as well as the provincial renewable energy program the Bow Island government is soliciting bids for.
“There are a couple major projects that are quite close to Bow Island and we’ll be working on preparing for the possible spin-offs from those projects, both during the construction and operational phases,” said Reynolds.
Town council is also continuing its advocacy for the twinning of Highway 3, which still has 220 km of only two lanes.
In the new year, the town is also preparing for more information from the province with regards to marijuana legalization.
Reynolds said the town hasn’t yet received any offers to open up dispensaries, but it needs to be prepared when that does happen.
“At this point, it looks like we primarily just have to update our Land-use Bylaw to address locations of retail and that kind of thing,” he said.
“There are production facilities popping up here and there and there are plans for production facilities. I don’t think all the rules are quite in place yet for that.” also preparing for more information from the province with regards to marijuana legalization.
Reynolds said the town hasn’t yet received any offers to open up dispensaries, but it needs to be prepared when that does happen.
“At this point, it looks like we primarily just have to update our Land-use Bylaw to address locations of retail and that kind of thing,” he said.
“There are production facilities popping up here and there and there are plans for production facilities. I don’t think all the rules are quite in place yet for that.”

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