Moment with the Mayor: Building Community

Hi Neighbours:

How do we build a community and prepare for the future? We listen, become informed, question, reflect, decide, and implement. Your Council has been working hard to listen to our neighbours and friends, learning about the wide range of issues and the best practices to address them. We ask questions of our neighbours, friends, other elected officials, experts, and Administration. We reflect and think upon what we have learned so we may decide on what may be the best way forward, and turn it over to Administration to implement.

For Kindersley to be healthy, vibrant, and dynamic, Kindersley needs residents who are positively engaged. Many people are positively engaged, volunteering in a number of ways in a broad range of civic groups including arts, culture, recreation, and social agencies. These groups are crucial to our quality of life. Without them, Kindersley is not Kindersley but a series of water and sewer line connections with pavement on top.

Another part of a healthy and vibrant community is having knowledgeable residents rightly informed about the issues and challenges of our community. Council and Administration have been working hard to provide accurate information through a variety of sources, including the Town website, my weekly column in the Bean, my blog, my regular radio feature, and advertorials in your paper and The Bean. We are not trying to deceive anybody about the facts or what we are doing, and we are trying to be prudent with our money and spend intelligently. Further, we are always working to improve our communication with our user groups and residents.

I think we all want a Kindersley that is positively engaged, building a socially and economically vibrant community. We are doing this by trying to build a family friendly multicultural community that is safe; an approachable, innovative, and fiscally responsible Council; and Administration with a forward-looking approach to recognizing and fostering opportunities, solutions, and wealth creation.

Council’s priorities for our term - to guide us as we work for Kindersley - include: Open Communication, Financially Transparent, Strategic Growth, Reliable Infrastructure, and Organizational Effectiveness. Is there room for improvement? Yes. Have we made progress? I think so.

Please write or phone if you would like me to discuss a particular topic. If you have any questions or comments, drop me a line at the town office or email me at mayorenns-wind@kindersley.ca. You can also check out my blog at http://mayorjohn.blogspot.ca/. I appreciate your feedback.