For Crossfield, 2015 has been a year of setting down the foundation for development and future growth within the town, said Crossfield Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Ken Bosman.
He said he was proud of the work council and administration did to hasten the necessary steps required to expedite the laying of pipe, resulting in real money invested into the community by Dream Development.
“They didn’t come here to sell two houses,” he said.
Despite the rough state of the economy and the fact that subdivision projects are being cancelled “left, right and centre” all over Alberta, Bosman said Dream Development has continued to invest in Crossfield.
Getting the process completed on the municipal end quickly meant Dream could develop lots and bring them to market in 2016, thus becoming invested in Crossfield for the long run.
“(This growth) is going to show for the community for many years to come,” Bosman said.
Though growth of the community has been a high priority for council, one of the largest changes in the municipality came with the hiring of Bosman as CAO on Jan. 5, 2015, replacing long-time CAO Cheryl Skelly.
James Ginter, who stepped up to the position of deputy mayor on Sept. 1 of 2015, said any workplace can get set in its ways.
“The whole staff needed to hit the refresh button, so it’s just a different perspective and a restart,” Ginter said. “We’re happy with the new CAO.”
Administration has made progress on the budget front, Bosman said, including investing money to find and fix water leaks, resulting in an $8,000 savings on water a month.
This particular council, Bosman said, has a policy of expanding and adding new services through growth and internal planning and the Town has been substantially able to do that in 2015.
The enhanced policing program through the Airdrie Rural RCMP received a boost and has been further expanded into 2016 and a new bus route between Airdrie and Crossfield was launched on a six-month trial starting Oct. 5, 2015.
“We’ve been able to bring those (services) on line without raising taxes,” he said.
The Crossfield Municipal Library also received approval for a new home in the old Oliver Hotel on Railway Street.
Renovations are needed before the library can relocate into the building that is more than double the size of the library’s current space, which Ginter said would accommodate the community’s expected growth and improve the overall look of the area.
“It’s going to look sharp when it’s all done and be a big improvement on Railway Street,” Ginter said.
Moving forward for years to come, Bosman said council should get a big hug for “having the guts” to pass the Financial Responsibility bylaw on Sept. 15, 2015, which requires the Town to structurally look at financial matters in a “brutally honest” way.
With it, council cannot “paper over” the issues with hard decisions needing to be made.
“Sometimes it ain’t pretty,” Bosman said. “We look everything straight in the eye and it’s an honest, honest, honest look and the facts speak for themselves.”
He said he believes the Town has made enormous progress in a matter of one year and moving forward Crossfield will become the model for every little town in Alberta in terms of how finances are run.
