You have to dress for the occasion.
So when Cochrane town council sat down to address its proposed 2016 budget, the mayor, councillors and staff were prepared.
With Nov. 20 being national sports jersey day, council chambers saw a rainbow of sports teams represented. Mayor Ivan Brooker wore, appropriately, Denver Broncos colours with Peyton Manning’s name and number. If you’re going to quarterback budget proceedings, you may as well go all in. He may not have thrown a touchdown pass over the day-long budget deliberations in council chambers at Cochrane RancheHouse, but Mayor Brooker did guide the town’s team through 125 budget playbook pages of line items ranging from fire protection to swimming lessons.
On fire protection, Cochrane senior manager of protective services Mac de Beaudrap said having five men on day shift would give the town faster emergency-response times and better staffing flexibility when sending more than one truck out at a time.
“You can split a five-man crew into two crews,” said the Montreal Canadians jersey-wearing protective services chief. “It increases the depth of response.”
Council went in-camera to discuss fire staffing issues before deciding against additional fire crew opting, instead, to add to the town’s bylaw enforcement staff.
On swimming lessons, a proposed fee increase didn’t sit well with Coun. Jeff Toews who made an impassioned plea, that betrayed the taupe pullover he was sporting, to keep swim-lesson fees at $53.24 per learner.
His key discussion point being, simply, if one person died because they couldn’t afford swim lessons, it would be one too many.
“Swimming is an important, core skill,” he told council, saying the current fee for six, half-hour lessons at Big Hill Leisure Pool is already quite high. “It should be affordable for everyone in the community.”
Others, including Coun. Gaynor Levisky, suggested the moderate increase for 2016 would be a “phasing-in” of possible rate increases swimmers may face when Cochrane’s new aquatic/athletic facility opens. An increase now would cushion the blow of any future increases. But with no pricing model for the new pool in place yet, she conceded holding the line on swim lesson fees now wouldn’t be a problem.
On the planning front, Coun. Tara McFadden touted a big-picture view for Cochrane by suggesting a comprehensive rewrite of the town’s 10-year-old land-use bylaw. With all the growth and development Cochrane has experienced since 2004, she’s eager to ensure the town’s land-use strategy reflects our current community and is also mindful of the days when streets were inviting public spaces for street hockey, not just places to cram cars as tightly as possible into the available space.
Drew Hyndman, town senior manager of development services wearing Sydney Crosby’s Team Canada sweater, deftly stick-handled around McFadden’s request for data needed to rewrite the town’s land-use bylaw, saying the project would be “challenging.” Cost estimates for a project of that scope would be in the $250-$300,000 range.
By the end of deliberations, the proposed 1.3-per-cent tax hike for 2016 made the grade. For complete budget details, visit cochrane.ca
