After months of consultation and research, the transit task force is starting to wrap up its report and is expected to be presenting their recommendations to town council, Aug. 13.

Mayor Jeff Genung says the committee is holding one of its final meetings this afternoon, Aug. 2, to start hammering out what exactly will be presented. Another meeting will follow next week.

"It will all be on the table today. How soon do we give it? What do we recommend to council?"

He's been impressed with how the task force, largely formed by residents with himself, Marni Fedeyko and Tara McFadden representing council, has kept an open-mind to creating a made-in-Cochrane solution and getting away from merely presenting a traditional transit model.  

"If we had a grid kind of community that was laid out on a big flat square piece of property it might work. But running through railways, bridges, highways and intersections, heavy traffic plus the remoteness of some of our communities, it's a different challenge. To do that we have to find something that fits Cochrane."

In his discussions before and after last fall's election, he said people have expressed interested in new approaches to the long-debated introduction of transit.

"People are looking for something innovative and from my personal standpoint, an innovative, progressive, growing, forward-thinking community would not vote in favour of an old style transit system. So, we have a real opportunity to showcase our community in other regardless by doing something different outside the box. I think the task force has really embraced that. We're looking at several different models, looking at different ways of funding things."

He equates the establishment of transit to purchasing a vehicle, an analogy he attributes to Councillor Tara McFadden.

"So if someone says  'I want a new car, well, you could spend $3,000 on a used beater or you could spend $300,000 on a new Tesla; it all depends upon what you want. Once you decide what exactly that is, then you can put a price tag on it."

"It needs to be explained in great detail. Council has to choose what they want in the end and that will ultimately determine the price tag."