The Town of Cochrane has some exciting volunteer opportunities for local residents.

Town Council is currently recruiting  'public-at-large' members for four different boards, commissions and committees.

Jaylene Knight is the Manager of Legislative Services with the Town of Cochrane and she says that volunteer opportunities are a great way to learn more about Cochrane, get more involved in the community and be a part of creating local resources and policies.

"It's just a great opportunity to get engaged with your community," says Knight. "There's a lot of influence that residents can have and also be involved in these really indepth conversations. I believe that these types of opportunities are great for folks to get involved in and start understanding the work that the town does and how we make a lot of our decisions."

Unless specified, applicants must be residents of the Town of Cochrane and 18 years of age or older.

Five volunteer positions are open for the Cochrane Public Library Board, two of which can be filled by residents outside the Cochrane area, as long as they reside in Rocky View County. Knight says that there are also non-voting youth positions available on this particular board.

"The board had determined that they would like to engage more youth in some of the things that they were doing," says Knight. "Now there is legislation that requires voting members to be above the age of 18, so that's why they wanted to get those non-voting members on, because they felt that getting the input from the young members of our community would be very valuable for the board."

The Cochrane Planning Commission is looking to fill two positions, and residents with experience in planning, engineering, real estate, home building or architecture are encouraged to apply.

Other vacancies include The Parks and Recreation Committee who currently have six positions to fill, and the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board are also looking for four new members.

Knight says that both the Planning Commission and Appeal Board are the decision-making bodies for the town.

"Opportunities for the Planning Commission, development, permit applications, things like that come before them and then they ultimately make the decisions whether those things are approved or not," says Knight.

The deadline to apply is October 31, 2020. Knight says that you can submit an application online or by picking up a paper application at the RancheHouse.