Road, roads, roads.

Declared candidate Miles Chester says there is really only one major issue facing the next Cochrane town council: roads.

"With everything that's going on in our little town with the growth that we've seen, I really think that this new council is quite incumbent on focusing on roads and infrastructure," says Chester. "and I  do mean focussed. Don't get sidetracked with other issues."

"I've got some ideas on how to get the province on board to get some of the roads done and I need to be on council to do it."

Talk to anyone, says Chester, and they will say the same thing. What use to be a five minute drive home in the Sunset neighbourhood from his job at Cochrane Toyota has turned into an agonizing 25 minutes and he knows he's not alone.

"If you talk to oher people in town they're going to be frustrated about the amount of traffic, they're going to be frustrated by the fact that there are single roads everywhere and we need twin roads; we need to have the infrastructure to get around our little town."

He says the new interchange announced for Hwy. 1A and Hwy. 22 simply does not go far enough and the two highways must be twinned.

"Although the province says they are going to build a new overpass and interchange on 1A, if they don't improve the roads going into that intersection, they're building it for nothing."

He believes the town needs to work closely with the Alberta government to resolve the issue and says the town should be prepared to put money towards the project in order for the province to say yes.

Chester is a 21-year resident of Cochrane and was elected to town council in 2007 but lost his re-election bid in a tight 2010 race. He says he fell ill in 2009 (yes, he's well now) and that impacted his re-elect campaign and limited his ability to go door-to-door.

Still those three years provided him a wealth of experience in municipal politics.

'That was a really good experience for me and I always felt I have some unfinished work that I need to do."

He initially became interested in municipal politics in 2002 when the Bow Valley High School was developed with inadequate infrastructure fort water, sewer and proper road access.

"I vowed that if I ever got involved in politics that that would never happen again in the Town of Cochrane."

While roads is his main focus he also sees the need to update the Cochrane Sustainability Plan that's now nearing 10 years old. He says about 600 people from the community offered input into its creation and he believes people should come together to keep it vital.

"I would definitely during my term of four years like to  bring people back to revisit it to reforecast 50 years, which was really what that plan is all about."

He also believes the next council will have to deal with water licencing issues to take us beyond a population of 34-36,000.

"We have to come up with a solution in the next four years, otherrwise growth will naturally stop, because we won't have the water for it."

In the past, he has expressed concern with the planned residential growth on the borders of Cochrane by Rocky View County and said the town needs to take a stand because of the pressure it places upon our services.

"I happen to think that you can be as cordial as you want but they're not going to stop and we need to stop them. If they continue to build these large residential nodes around our town they're going to put more stress on our town than we can handle."

"If we can't get the province on board and slow this down then this growth node should be part of our town."

Chester came to Cochrane from Calgary with his family because they had three children about to enter high school and knew the schools were excellent here.

Chester is starting to gear up for the election. His flyers will soon to distributed and he'll be launching some social media. In the meantime, he invites people to contact him at 403-852-0180 or email him at chester60@hotmail.com.