The way Gerry Murphy looks at it, following in the footsteps of his boss is a good thing.

Murphy, 55, is the town's new senior manager of Community Services and is taking over from Suzanne Gaida, who is now the Town of Cochrane's deputy chief administrative officer. He sees continuing to work under Gaida as a big plus.

"I'm looking forward to carrying on the great work that Suzanne Gaida has done for very many years," says Murphy. "I get the benefit from her guidance and mentoring moving forward, but at the same time I intend to put my thumbprint on community services."

Prior to serving here as parks and open space manager for three years, Murphy worked in several Alberta municipalities and his work has touched on all aspects of the new position. No matter where he works, he sees customer service as a top priority.

"Customer service is the same no matter where you work and no matter what you're doing. I've tried to instill in any of the crews that I've been privileged to lead a sense of customer service excellence and that is really that is what I enjoy doing the most. I take a lot of pride in that and I take a lot of pride in staff that take a lot of pride in that."

He sees keeping up with Cochrane's rapid growth as the biggest challenge.

"The real challenge is to maintain that service level as we grow. We are a town but we are a larger town than some other cities in Alberta, so maintaining that high level of service, that small-town feel, as we grow is one thing I''ll be working towards."

"I have some ideas for efficiencies and service delivery that I'll be discussing with the managers moving forward. I'm also looking for synergy within the department. There may be some opportunities to complement one work stream with another."

The Community Services senior manager position oversees FCSS, recreation and culture, facilities, parks and open spaces and fire services and he speaks highly of all the managers he will be working with.

"We have very strong managers and they support our great corporate culture. I always like to boost about the corporate culture that we have here, but like any thing that is very good, it needs to be worked at. We need to make sure that it stays. We have a people first attitude here."

"It really is a good corporate culture here. I've work for St. Albert, Edmonton, Slave Lake and Fort McMurray and not that they didn't also have good corporate cultures, but I would argue that the environment here is second to none."

Gaida, who was senior manager for nine years and has been with the town for 23 years, believes Murphy strengths will help guide the community into the future as it continues to grow.

"Gerry's work as Parks and Open Spaces manager showed his ability to build relationships with the community and his strength in leading his team through the growth of the community," says Gaida. "As the senior manager of Community Services, Gerry will bring in his past experiences and his strengths to work with the community and organization to help guide the town with a focus on continuing community relationships and engagement."

The town's former parks coordinator, Brad Luft, is taking Murphy's place as parks and open spaces manager.

Susan Flowers is retiring as FCSS manager this fall and Kim Krawec, the coordinator of Western Rocky View Parent Link Centre, has been named her successor. A transition period has been built into that change.