Cochrane councillors Jeff Toews and Gaynor Levisky presented a motion of notice Aug. 11 during town council suggesting a number of community enhancements for new developments in the town of Cochrane.
Toews told council that this is something he has been wanting to do for a long time and he believed with the current group of councillors, they could put something together that would enhance the community.
“We’re building so quickly,” said Toews to council. “I think we need to take a good hard look at what we’re doing and build on the things we are already doing well and do them a little bit better as a group of councillors, administration and public as a whole.”
The motion included a number of items, including a community entrance plan, building separation and landscaping, parking and road standards, density, natural areas, connectivity, design and engineering standards.
“We’re not going to be a small town, but we can have the spirit of a small town,” added Levisky.
Toews said that he and Levisky had talked to residents, council members and others in the community and came up with as many ideas as they could.
He said at this stage they would like to have administration research and prepare a comprehensive report identifying current policies, bylaws and legislation that address the community enhancements that were listed.
He added that he would like to have administration come back with some suggestions of ways that council could make those enhancements happen and that he would also like to have a strategic planning session with council.
“I think it is time to raise the bar in terms of what we are doing in this community. We are a desirable community and we have so many things to offer,” said Toews.
Councillor Mary Lou Davis said although she thought the list was comprehensive and she liked a lot of points, she had concerns that it was an overwhelming amount of items to research by the end of the quarter. She suggested narrowing it down a bit for staff.
Toews responded that the idea was to put all of the items forward and cover as much as possible. He said he didn’t want to do individual notices of motion for each item, which was why it was presented it in the manner he did.
It was decided by council that administration would create a matrix with the items found in the motion of notice to be ready for the end of 2014.
Council unanimously proclaimed Sept. 26 – 28 as Arts and Culture Days in Cochrane.
Colleen McCrea, president of the Arts and Culture Foundation of Cochrane, presented an overview of what the festival would look like this year and requested that Mayor Ivan Brooker appear at the formal kickoff.
McCrea said they would like to focus as much as they could on the culture aspect of the event and not only on the arts.
On Friday evening, there will be a kickoff event in Centennial Square from 4 - 7 p.m. This day will include line dancing, a large cake and the official launch by the mayor.
The rest of the festival will include the Outhouse Races, an ATCO stage and musicians and dancing along 2nd Street, which will be closed down for the festival.
“You guys have outdone yourselves,” said Brooker. “I can’t line dance to save my life, but I will come to the opening event.”
Martin Parnell gave a presentation to council about his 10th and final Quest for Kids, where he will attempt to set 10 Guinness World Records at 10 universities across Canada from Sept. 19 until Oct. 14.
He will be starting at Quest University in B.C. and then moving on to universities in Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and finishing up at Memorial University in Newfoundland.
He has been doing a series of 10 quests over five years, with the goal of raising $1 million for Right to Play and helping 20,000 disadvantaged children. He started in 2010, when he ran 250 marathons in one year raising $250,000.
Parnell has completed nine quests so far and raised over $600,000 and hopes to raise $400,00 in his final quest.
Parnell thanked the town and the council for their continued support in his quests. Brooker responded that the town should be thanking Parnell and that he has really put Cochrane on the map.
Council heard the first reading of Bylaw 21, a land use bylaw amendment on 4A River Heights Drive, where currently 1.65 acres is zoned as highway commercial, and the proposal was to add additional uses on the parcel; the additional uses being proposed are childcare services and personal service shops.
One year ago, the same parcel was subject to a subdivision application and land use bylaw amendment that was meant to facilitate the development of a church on the parcel. At that time, religious institutions were added as an allowable use, but since that time the development of the church did not occur.
A public hearing will occur on Sept. 8.
The Cochrane Light Up committee was denied a loan from the town for a 30-foot aluminum Christmas tree.
They were asked to return Sept. 22 if they hadn’t raised all of the funds and council would look at potentially giving a one-time grant if Light Up still required financial assistance.
The committee first presented at the June 23 council meeting. Council had a number of questions and requested administration to provide a report back to council with more information.
The chair of the Light Up committee, Marni Fedeyko, had reported to administration that they had raised $9,000 in sponsorship as of Aug. 11 and said they feel they would be able to pay back the loan in a shorter time than originally thought, which was 5 – 7 years, but they did not have an exact timeframe.
The committee also received a 2014 community grant for $1,750 towards this event.
Cochrane administration recommended that council decline the request for the loan because it wasn’t the town’s practice or business to provide loans to organizations, and that if council chose to support it, they do it in the form of a one-time grant instead of a loan.
Administration also pointed out that if council did choose to give the loan, it could result in other groups coming forward to do the same outside of the community grants program.
“They are doing very well obviously. It has only been two months and they are at $9,000,” said Brooker. “Personally, I would like to see the community do this on their own.”
Councillor Levisky added that it is a slippery slope to get into the business of lending money, but she does think the tree would be a unique opportunity.
The deadline to order the tree is the end of September.
