Mountain View County has a lot of things in the works for 2019, both within the municipality and with its outside partners, says Reeve Bruce Beattie.
“There are a number of things we are going to be looking at,” said Beattie. “One is the economic development plan that we adopted this fall and that will include the Olds-Didsbury regional airport possible expansion.”
The county has allocated $55,000 in the 2019 budget towards the economic development plan for the airport, one of two owned by the county, the other being in Sundre.
The county will also be busy developing the new inter-municipal development plans required under the updated Municipal Government Act, he said.
“We are in the process of developing those, not only with our urban communities but also with our surrounding rural communities as well,” he said. “We have until 2020 to complete those plans but obviously with 11 to do, we are working on those now.”
The county will be working on long-range infrastructure plans, with the committee set up to look at that now in place.
“That’s really dealing with all of our roads, bridge and other infrastructure over the next 20 to 30 years,” he said. “We just completed testing all of our hard-surface roads. We have all of the results of that and will be using that as part of our long-range planning.”
The development of capital plans for recreation will also be continued in 2019, he said.
“We are contributing funds to that every year in anticipation of future projects,” he said.
The county also plans to review its municipal development plan, a large-scale document that governs development across the municipality.
“There have been several things that have come up since 2012 when we adopted the plan. There are a number of issues that have come forward so we want to look at that,” he said.
There will also be discussions with urban partners regarding the development of multi-service buildings in area towns, he said.
The county will be watching the upcoming provincial election with keen interest, he said.
“We will be watching the provincial election and what impact that might have on our future plans,” he said. “We rely a lot on provincial support, particularly in the area of infrastructure and health and seniors' housing. All of those things are impacted by provincial government decisions.”
There are 13,074 residents in Mountain View County.
