Olds mayor Mike Muzychka says the town accomplished a lot over the past year.
He cites installation of the turning signals at Highway 27 and 57th Avenue as well as the decision to create two new positions: another police officer and a full-time fire prevention officer/inspector as examples of that.
Muzychka says council also worked hard to obtain more housing for low income residents and to increase contacts with provincial government officials in Edmonton.
He says council will continue focusing on obtaining that low income housing and making those contacts in the new year.
Muzychka says another goal is to help O-NET, the town's locally owned Internet and TV service, offer its services to other communities.
He's also looking forward to the official opening of the new Rotary Athletic park. Construction on that park is expected to be completed this summer or fall, depending on weather.
Muzychka says further improvements may be made to the Highway 27 and 57th Avenue intersection in the future, but that will likely be up to the provincial government's Transportation department.
Earlier in the year, the town installed turning signals there for about $8,000, because councillors thought something needed to be done.
But they balked at the Transportation department's suggested $90,000 fix which included turning lanes, and the department's insistence that the town should foot that bill.
"Of course with the Town of Olds, we weren't prepared to pay for that and Alberta Transportation said that the traffic flow didn't support it quite yet. It was getting close, but it wasn't there yet," Muzychka said during an interview with the Albertan.
"So we as a council decided that we would put the money up because we could see that the need for the turn signals was quite great, even though Alberta Transportation thought that the traffic flows didn't meet that requirement.
"But I think anybody who has driven around Olds a fair amount of time knows that it was quite necessary, so we took it upon ourselves to do it. Again, we still even had to have approval from Alberta Transportation to even do it, so it was good that they did let us do that," he added.
During the year, council received a pitch from developers to create low income housing in the proposed Miller Meadows development, located in the south end of town, off 57th Avenue.
Local residents objected to the proposed density for that project twice, so once again, it's gone back to the developer's drawing board.
Muzychka expects the positions for the new RCMP officer and the fire inspection/prevention officer to be filled in 2019, he's just not sure exactly when.
"With the RCMP we're sort of at the mercy of K Division. I believe the request will go in in early January, so we'll have to wait and see with that," he said. "I haven't heard a timeline on the fire department (position) either."
Muzychka is also looking forward to an expansion of the cannabis production industry in Olds.
Over the past few years, it's been predicted that five cannabis production companies will eventually be up and running in the community, creating about 1,500 jobs. Muzychka says that's still his understanding.
"I haven't much of an update out of the planning department, but to my knowledge, yeah, that's the trajectory we're on," he said.
One of those companies, Sundial Growers, held its official opening this past fall.
Muzychka says coming to an agreement on housing density for the low income housing project so it can get started is one of his goals for 2019.
Another is the goal to expand O-NET; make it be a leader in its industry.
"I think they're right on the cusp (of doing that)," Muzychka said.
Right near the beginning of the year Olds town council approved spending $600,000 as part of a $1.2-million provincial matching grant to expand O-NET under the provincial Community and Regional Economic Support (CARES) grant.
"That CARES grant is paying dividends. They've hired a bunch of staff that have done some great promotional things and are working on putting the model out to other municipalities," Muzychka said.
Also in the new year, the town will continue to work on making contacts with provincial government officials.
"I think that'll probably be a strong focus for myself at least — and council as a whole as well," Muzychka said.
"When we were at AUMA (the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association convention) and sat down with Brian Mason, Minister Mason, we got a lot of very quick action there, which was fantastic, so I was very proud of the job that council and I have done over the year with establishing those relationships." Muzychka said.
"No matter what happens in the spring with the (provincial) election, a lot of the contacts are with the staffers who usually remain on, so if there is a change in government, we've already got those contacts," he added.
He's also looking forward to the official opening of the Rotary Athletic Park, whenever it occurs.
"I know the plans are all set and ready to go, so if we have a decent early spring and a good season for construction, we should be able to get that going. Hopefully we're cutting the ribbon in September for that athletic park," he said.
