Thank you. We, your Council, very much appreciate that you take time to be involved in your community.

Simply by reading this message, you are demonstrating that you care about Chestermere and the direction we are heading.

In addition to reading this article, there are many ways you can get involved and I’d like to take a moment to highlight a few opportunities:

• With our commitment to transparency, we have increased the number of reports from our organization. I encourage you to take some time to read our first quarter Financial Report, Strategic Plan update and RCMP year-end report (which are available in the Council meeting agendas).
• We’d like to invite you to get involved in the future of Chestermere by participating in a Mayor & Council Community Roundtable on June 25 to talk about what we can all do make Chestermere amazing.
• I’m also pleased to invite you to participate in our public engagement process that will be announced shortly. We want to do a better job of engaging with you on topics you care about and we very much look forward to hearing your thoughts.
• Since our election in October, we have had 30 public meetings. If you haven’t had the chance, we’d like to invite you to attend a Council meeting or a Committee of the Whole meeting. At the meetings in just the past few weeks, we dug into the details of the Webster development, approved recreation dollars to invest into capital projects at the Rec Centre, passed the 2018 Tax Rate Bylaw, heard from ambitious Grade 5 students and many other items detailed in the Council Notes on our website.
• Connect with us anytime. I am in the office nearly every day and invite you to call or stop in. That being said, I will be away with a few other members of Council early in June for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference. As new Councillors eager to learn and a commitment to building relationships with other municipalities (as already demonstrated in our positive and ongoing collaboration with Rocky View County), this conference fits well within our strategic priorities and we are eager to bring back our learnings from it.
• Finally, join us at an event! Upcoming festivals like Canada Day (July 1) and Water Festival (July 28) are a fun and easy way to enjoy the parks, meet your neighbours and get connected to your community.

Thanks again for all you do to stay involved. It is because of people like you that Chestermere is the vibrant community we all enjoy.

We look forward to seeing you this summer,     

Mayor Chalmers

Ps. In case you missed the announcement last week, we have also hired a permanent Chief Administrative Officer. Bernie Morton will begin as the City manager on August 1 and we look forward to welcoming him and his family to Chestermere!