Thank you very
much to all those 38 people who took the time to tell us what we are doing
well, what we need to work on, and who gave us a grade for our first year in
our Council chairs. The grade was a B-,
which is better than average, and it means we have more work to do to improve
in the next year. There were 6
"A"s, 20 "B"s, 10 "C"s, 2 "D"s and 0
"F"s.
There might have
been a little controversy in the decision about "how" to get this
information and "where" to get money to pay for the idea, but there
was never a question about whether Council wanted to hear from residents about
their concerns and the things you are happy with. Everyone on Council wants to hear from you as
often as you wish to take the time to talk with any of us. We are all grateful we live where we do, we
get the chance to talk about good ideas, and that we may each, occasionally, be
on the minority side of an issue. It comes
with the territory when you are elected.
As members of Council, we expect to have some differences of opinion,
just like we might have, in any conversation, just about anywhere in our
lives. When we disagree on Council – it
creates a place for a productive conversation and one of the reasons why we
live in the best country in the world.
We all support the majority decisions made by Council, and we all thank
you for your report card comments.
What did you
say? You said some really nice things
about how the staff handled the winter snow last year, you liked the improvements
to playgrounds, the cleanliness of the Town, the beautification with flowers
and the work done to try and address flood related issues. Each of these areas got multiple positive
comments. There was satisfaction with
the progress on the new Mountain View Seniors Housing project that has
officially broken ground, the attempts to fix deteriorating sidewalks and
roads, staff accessibility, and an improvement in attending to the importance
of growing business or bringing business into the area. There were positive comments about the
improved relationship with Mountain View County, the fact we are asking you for
your opinion, improvements in communication, and real support for trying to
keep taxes low.
Suggestions and
concerns outnumbered satisfied comments.
Fix some sidewalks and streets, fix the road by Tim Hortons and make the
downtown more safe & pedestrian friendly were the issues that received
comments from more than one resident.
There were single comment suggestions to fix the arena heaters, cancel
sani-dump fees for Town residents, put less gravel at intersections in the
winter, plant more trees on Main Street, better recreation signage, better cat
bylaw enforcement, encourage more variety in local businesses, have more activities
available for families, better enforcement of speeding and noise on Main
Street, and a number of other suggestions that will be taken to Council in a
document longer than this article will allow.
This is a very
short summary of the four pages of notes in the summary of comments. All received comments will be presented to
Council for consideration. Some we may
be able to do, without much impact to budget, some we can fix easily, and some
will certainly take longer. In the next
year, we will try to report to you on our progress on these concerns at Council
meetings, through this article each month, through open houses on topics like
improvements in the downtown and through conversations you may wish to have
with any Council member.
So, what happened
to the $100 draw prize? I will leave
that a mystery in our community. One
lucky ratepayer in town who filled out the survey will get a call from me with
a $100 gift. Because we are the
community of Sundre and District, and because we value the opinions of all
members of our community, whether they live in Town or in the County, there
will be another $100 gift to a County resident.
In our "tech-connected” community, how long do you think it will
take for the winners to be known if I don't tell you who they are?
Thank you again to
everyone who took the time to fill out this survey for us.
Mayor
Terry Leslie
No comments:
Post a Comment