Town councillors made it clear no disrespect was intended towards veterans, but they want to receive public input before naming the future bridge crossing the Bow River.

Councillors Morgan Nagel and Alex Reed were unable to garner the support of the rest of council to called the future crossing the "Veterans Bridge." Instead, council opted to ask administration to return with a public engagement process to select a name.

Nagel was flabbergasted by the decision, believing councillors had informally given support to the idea and didn't expect the change in tide. He did not wish to amend his motion and let it go down in defeat. Nor did he vote in favour of establishing a public engagement process.

Councillor Marni Fedeyko was the first to say she supported our veterans but saw the naming of the bridge as one of the rare opportunities for the public to have a voice. Should the public come back saying they want it named the Veterans Bridge she said she would support their decision. 

"I'm not saying it's necessarily wrong, but we haven't even heard from the people yet about it."

Nagel, though, questioned the value of going to the public and the entire public engagement process that he believes gets hijacked by people who actively aim to impact public opinion. He believes a plebiscite was the only way to have accurate and complete public engagement and saw this as an overblown method for the naming.

"Doing something like naming it after veterans is something almost everybody supports and we should just take action and do it. We're not asking the community for their feedback, we're taking action on behalf of the silent majority."

Reed, who co-sponsored the motion, also questioned the effectiveness of undertaking public engagement on the bridge and said he didn't understand the holdup. He did, however, support the motion to develop a community engagement process when the first motion failed.

Councillor Tara McFadden made the motion for administration to create an engagement process.

Just how that consultation should occur did prolong the discussion and was of special interest to Councillor Patrick Wilson, who said he was a swing vote but wanted to be sure the consultation made sense.

The town does have a policy outlining the procedure for the naming of streets and public areas. If it's treated like a street, the name should reflect natural, historical or environmental features or in honour of contributing people/organizations. If it's judged as a public place, the name should have historical significance to Cochrane. Either way, all suggested names are to be referred to the Cochrane and Historical and Archival Preservation Society for review and recommendation to council.

It will be a few years before we cross the Bow on the bridge connecting Griffin Road and the Riversong community. Design work is underway and construction was last reported to begin in mid-2019. 

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Nagel, Reed Want New Bridge Named in Honour of Veterans