What's been long rumoured and anticipated has become official.

Mayor Ivan Brooker has confirmed today he will be seeking a second-term and has set his three top priorities as completing the transportation network, transit and lobbying for the twinning of Hwy. 1A into Cochrane.

Mayor Brooker has been open with friends and associates about his intention to stand for a second term, but believed starting his campaign too soon would interfere with the work at hand that needs to be completed before council dissolves for the election.

"For me, I have a job to do," says Brooker. "I'm still the mayor until the new council is announced and quite honestly once everybody starts campaigning hard it gets tougher to get business done. We still have a little bit of business to get done..

There are three meetings left for the current council and in that time he hopes they are able to get the final agreements in place for the new Bow River bridge right-away and deal with some final land-use issues.

"We're down to the nitty gritty with Southbow Landing and Green Drop as far as road access, but I still want to see that done so we can advance all of the land-uses that are apart of those agreements."

Council, too, has a Rivercrest public hearing shortly.

Brooker believes he has established some strong relationships to further Cochrane's causes and has made strong inroads with Infrastructure minister Brian Mason.

"It's about building relationship," says Brooker. "I believe we have done a good job. We've had a lot of ministers through town lately and I think that's because we're respectful in our approach. Our asks are reasonably. Our asks are not just for the Town of Cochrane, they're for the region as a whole. If you can prove your cause is worthy for the region as a whole it works well."

Brooker says he lost count of how many meetings he attended to push for improvements to the Hwy. 1A and 22 interchange and found the current government responsive and understanding of its dire need.

Unfortunately, the twinning of 1A within the Cochrane boundaries was removed from the project and he's now lobbying to get it back. He's impressed with the quick response from Minister Mason. Within a week of requesting a meeting, Mason's office phoned to schedule one for Sept. 6 in Edmonton.

"That usually never happened in the past," he points out. "You would request meetings and it would take a long time to get an audience. I'm proud ot the relationships that I've built up with the people that we need to have good relationships with."

He wants to see through the completion of the transportation network that is unfolding after years of planning, the biggest piece of which is the new Bow River crossing.

"Nothing seems to necessarily get done without pushing people along to make sure what is agreed upon gets done."

He also says it's now time for residents to decide if they want local transit. Since the last election, regional transit has now been taking on by the Calgary Regional Partnership, GreenTRIP funding has been altered to meet the town's needs and the new local transit plan is inclusive of all neighbourhoods.

"I believe the community has changed quite a bit. We're in a different position than we were before and it makes a lot more sense to go ahead. Now it will be a service, if people chose, that will go out to the entire town. We'll see what the answer is when we put it out to the public."

Brooker is proud of his first term and the people he worked with.

"It's always been a big honour to represent the community and I believe I've done a good job representing the residents. Of all the councils I've ever been on, truthfully this was the best and most productive. I couldn't have asked for a better group to work with."

He's pleased with how well the new aquatic/multisports centre has been received and believes that was a major accomplishment of the current council.

"The responsible from the community is amazing. You go there and the facility is full. People are in recreation programs, they're in the fitness centre, they're in the yoga or spin classes. Everything seems to have people in it and it's really busy."

As for his campaign, he doesn't have a slogan and says he will continue to make himself accessible. During his term, he says it would have been unusual to not receive a returned call or message the same day.

He is considering holding a weekly information meetings during the election where people can drop by and discuss issues but hasn't yet finalized those plans.