Cochrane Mayor looks ahead to completion of major interchange

As we close the door to 2023, Cochrane Mayor Jeff Genung says there were a lot of changes that could be seen in our community over the last year. 

"The 1A project being complete, the 1A/22 underway, that champagne bottle that we got to pop finally for the Interchange project and even just the interim
solution of the traffic circle there that I've been getting some complaints about, but passing them along to the province, happily, has made a huge difference in Cochrane. I think, looking up the Cochrane Hill from your traffic cam, you don't see the lineups that we used to see. Motorists are doing what we need them to do and that's just move around our community as freely as possible. So that would be a highlight."

The year kicked off with a major announcement for Cochrane's tech sector.

"It doesn't seem like it was this year that we announced the Garmin expansion, way back in February. A file I had been working on for a year in advance of that and finally been able to announce that to Cochrane residents and 200 more jobs. I was meeting with them and it looks like they're ahead of schedule and things are looking good for them to be opening up in the new year."

Genung says the start of the year also came with the biggest challenge for him on a personal level.

"At the State of Cochrane event, having the big protest and the stuff my family and I went through. That was probably one of the lower moments of 2023 maybe for our community as a whole but it just kind of set the tone for the year that came after. I thought the event went over pretty well after we got in the door. But yeah, I don't want to reflect too much on that."

To no one's surprise, Genung says one of the biggest challenges for the community was the water and wastewater incident in October. 

A line was ruptured during construction causing both fresh water and wastewater to flow into the Bow River for a period of time. 

"Yes, the wastewater incident and water loss was most impactful on our community as a whole. But for me personally, it was actually kind of refreshing. And I say that, you know, tongue in cheek a little bit to actually deal with a community issue, like the social media noise and the social kind of discourse that started back with that protest, and really didn't let go of me or our organization for the entire year. So it was kind of nice, through that crisis to have our heads down and just focused on municipal issues. And in this case, it was a big one, but I thought our team handled that very well."

Genung reports that the town successfully minimized the impact on residents, limiting the number of homes without water to approximately 16, along with a temporary disruption for a few businesses.

When the Mayor isn't busy at town council or various committee meetings, he can often be seen with his giant scissors, helping to officially open new businesses in our growing town. 

"I love those, anytime you get an opportunity to thank a business for investing in Cochrane and choosing to open and take a risk and hire employees and be part of our local economy, it's incredible. I can't even remember all of them off the top of my head but my scissors were busy cutting." laughs Genung, "To be honest, it's a bucket filler. Those people, they've done their homework. They've looked around the province. They have other choices and options available to them. But they've chosen Cochrane and we're lucky to have them."

Drivers will continue to see big changes on the roads over the next year says Genung. 

"I think the biggest one is going to be the completion of the 1A/22 interchange. The province is telling us 2025 is the year that it will be complete, but that includes all of the landscaping and all the grass and sod and everything would be done. I'm hoping that we're seeing new bridges and starting to utilize some of the actual permanent infrastructure by this time next year."

Also on the list for 2024, "The Horse Creek Sports Park planning. I think there's with the growth all of the community groups that are looking for more sports fields. The plans for that are going to start to take shape and the grading and stripping of that whole quarter section. There won't be grass and fields there in 2024. But I think people could start to get excited that things are happening finally and we're not just talking about it."

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