There's no such thing as perfect, but the past year has made clear Sundre's promising potential.
The Visitor Information Centre set a milestone record number of people who came to town. More than 4,000 visitors were logged in 2015, which broke a record not seen since 2006. And that doesn't count others who might not have come into the information centre and gone off exploring on their own.
While tourism itself stimulates the local economy in the short term, it can also have a positive long-term impact by inspiring some people to relocate here. As the saying goes, if you're not growing, you're dying.
And Sundre is poised for growth.
Short of a monstrous mega store, there are just about all the amenities a person could ask for. Most small municipalities could only hope to have a recreational facility like the Sundre Aquaplex indoor pool and fitness centre. The Sundre Skatepark is another great asset that adds further appeal to young families looking to settle in a small community. Also, the new multi-million dollar Mountain View Seniors' Housing campus of care is scheduled to open this summer.
Those are just a few examples ó there are too many to mention in detail in one brief column. The hospital, schools, library, arts centre, clinics, veterinarian, arena, curling rink, rodeo grounds, golf courses, grocery store, hotels, sporting goods store as well as a hardware and video rental store, and the list goes on. That doesn't even include the natural assets like Snake Hill, the Red Deer River and the West Country.
But all the potential in the world won't bear fruit without a great deal of effort.
Nothing worthwhile comes easy.
With growth comes the need to prepare and to plan.
Town council has already begun taking steps towards preparing for impending upgrades to the wastewater treatment facility's capacity and quality. It's also planning to prioritize introducing high-speed broadband Internet, which would only further convince potential residents and business owners to call Sundre home.
Connecting to broadband Internet is little different than when the community got its first telephone lines, in terms of the importance of establishing that connectivity with the rest of the world.
Council also recently joined the Southern Alberta Energy From Waste Association, which seeks to turn trash into power instead of irresponsibly burying it all for future generations to deal with. Landfill liners are not so much a question of if they will fail but when.
So there remain many hurdles ahead ó wastewater treatment, refuse management, and flood mitigation to name a few ó but they can be overcome through perseverance and teamwork.
As Mayor Terry Leslie said during a recent interview with the Round Up, "We need to get the attitude of possibility rather than the fear of change to be front and centre in our mind."
