Dear editor:
Some residents want a pool and some do not. Good decisions come out of good debates. This is how the democratic process works. What is not fine is the confusion being created in the community about the aquatic/curling centre.
Councillor Morgan Nagel is neglecting to paint the entire picture. His scare tactics and slanted information could easily mislead residents to believe that six out of your seven elected officials and the entire senior administration team at the Town of Cochrane are making rash uneducated decisions, not dealing with the road issues and will cause an excessive increase in taxes for years and years to come. This is simply not true.
The confusion comes when residents hear they have to choose between two very important infrastructure projects, traffic or a pool. Fear rises when they hear a pool would create financial disaster leaving us unable to meet the basic needs of our residents. Anger is created when they hear that projects like the bridge are put on hold. Again this is simply not true.
One of my campaign promises was to build an aquatic/curling centre that is fiscally responsible and will meet the needs of residents for years to come. We were presented with a plan to accomplish this and much more. This is true.
But let’s say we take the one-problem-at-a-time approach Coun. Nagel is implying. This simplistic approach to complex issues would create much bigger problems down the “road”. Sure, we may have solved some of our traffic issues, but what would we really have accomplished? Great roads that lead our residents right out of town to meet their recreational and quality of life needs? Our local business owners would not view this as favorable. However, business owners in Calgary, Airdrie and Canmore would gladly support Coun. Nagel’s recommendations.
And what would happen to our property values? Good roads and basic services are expected. People move to a town for quality of life and deep community connections. My discussions with Cochrane realtors verified that people looking to move to Cochrane are willing to pay a premium for housing with the expectation of future amenities. Ultimately, if all we have to offer is great roads and basic services we would not attract new homebuyers and this would have a negative impact on our property values.
Neither my fellow councillors nor I am ignoring traffic issues. We do listen to our residents and we make informed decisions. This is why you elected us. We are heavily lobbying Alberta Transportation to address the main source of our traffic concerns. We have a meeting with Banff-Cochrane MLA Ron Casey this week, and rest assured we will be discussing how we escalate and prioritize our Hwy 1A and 22 upgrade needs. We do have a solid financial and strategic plan to move forward on a bridge into Riversong, a new RCMP station and a solution to water/waste water needs as we grow. We also have approximately $23 million earmarked for road upgrades and road maintenance projects. Oh, and by the way, we can also afford the pool we approved.
All these projects will have my support because they can be accomplished in a fiscally responsible way with tax increases kept at the rate of inflation or below. We should be grateful to administration and previous councils that have paved the path for all these projects to come to fruition.
Gaynor Levisky, Cochrane councillor
