Since being elected in October, the new town council has been quick to put their imprint on the direction of the town.

2018 Budget Approved

Formed by candidates who largely pledged conservative fiscal management, they have surprisingly produced the largest budget in the town's history as its first major act.

The town budget ballooned from $48.9 million in 2017 to a new high of $53.1 million, an 8.6 per cent increase. Fortunately, growth revenue offsets most of those expenditures and residential property taxes will rise 3.06 per cent, compared to 0.83 per cent last year. What that means in real dollars depends upon the municipally assessed values of property and in many cases it will higher than 3.06 per cent. There were also increases in water/sewer and recycling charges.

The bulk of the operational cost increases centred upon the contentious costs of the hiring of four additional fire services employees, three RCMP officers and another full-time communications advisory. There was a clear line draw on the expenditures and they passed by a slim 4-3 margin with Morgan Nagel, Alex Reed and Patrick Wilson opposed.

The spending tide was somewhat curbed by eliminating a large chunk of anticipated transit operating costs and by increasing the anticipated revenue from growth. However, it does not take into account any potential settlement with the local firefighters union or the ramifications of any settlement reached in ongoing RCMP contract negotiations.

It appears to set the stage for even more challenging budgetary deliberations for 2019 and implies higher tax increases can be anticipated from this council than the last.

Transit Task Force

The first of Mayor Jeff Genung's task forces will soon be established to examine what shape, if any, transit should take in the community.

At its December meeting, the task force membership was changed to add two town councillors to the mixed. The original format had the mayor serving as chair, three members at large, two from the business community and one from Family and Community Support Services. The majority of councillors wanted representation on the committee and two councillors were added. The request surprised, if not confused, the mayor.

"Adding more councillors is not harmful," said Genung at the Dec. 11 council meeting, "but what are we trying to achieve by being on the task force? I think the council is open to listening to what the public has to say on what we should address. I'm okay with having more, but I don't really understand the desire."

Council remains caution on how or if transit will be introduced in the community and we can anticipate some extensive discussion during the course of the year.

No Chickens for Cochrane

In a close 4-3 vote, town council rejected the idea of a chicken pilot project that would have introduced a maximum of 72 chickens to the community in a two-year pilot project. Extensive research was prepared and presented to council for the proposal but in the end the majority said no.

Notices of Motion

Councillors were quick to follow through on their election campaign promises with the introduction of a series of notices of motion.

Marni Fedeyko received support to have administration return with a comprehensive report on the potential of implementing "live" streaming of council meetings. Money has been set aside in the town budget should it proceed that also includes required upgrades to the council chamber.

Morgan Nagel asked for a quantification of development projects at various stages of approval in town and that report has since been provided to council.

Mayor Genung received unanimous support for renaming the off-leash park by the Bow River the Jim Uffelmann Memorial Park in honour of the long-standing advocate for off-leash parks and community trails advocate. Uffelmann suffered a fatal injury while volunteering his time to fall trees for the public trail system in the Bragg Creek area. He passed away on Sept. 29, 2017. During the fall election he did propose naming the park in Uffelmann's honour.

There are already two other notices of motion brewing for the New Year.

As reported by Cochrane Now nearly a month ago, Alex Reed s looking for the establishment of a Sunshine List to be made public for the highest paid employees of the municipality in the spirit of Alberta's Public Sector Transparency Act.

Fedeyko is seeking support for a motion to allow small business owners to park utility trailers on their driveways,