Suzanne Oel – Division 4
Greetings & Thank you! I appreciate the opportunity to serve you in the next Foothills County council term.
Thank you: for sharing your concerns and ideas with me throughout this past year and recent days. I will work with you on these top priorities I have heard from you.
Reduce taxes and plan carefully: I will take action on lowering the municipal tax bill in respect of our hard-working taxpayers and retired residents. In recognition of the burden of increasing cost of living, we need to reduce municipal property taxes to help residents manage. With the market-related increase to property values and the higher requisition bills coming from the Province on schools and policing, we must aim for a plan to compensate for these moving parts. To achieve this, I will work very diligently with our council and administration in our upcoming municipal budget planning to come in at a zero-increase on the municipal property tax bill, and plan to diversify our tax base from the approximate 75% residential assessment proportion. See website for more details: suzanneoel.com
Best response to your emergency: When Foothills County residents experience their worst day, they will want to see the best-possible emergency services response when it really counts. Through my experience as Foothills Regional 9-1-1 Commission chairperson, Fire Board chairperson, Policing Committee member, and as High Country Rural Crime Watch volunteer president, I have acquired substantial insights for working with our valuable 9-1-1, fire + policing departments, and partner agencies. I will continue collaborating with all stakeholders in preparing meetings and strategies to continue addressing: EMS availability & response, police visibility & response, crime prevention, cyclist-community conflict, road safety, wildlife conflict, and fire/wildfire/drought/flood emergency preparedness.
Speed up building + development permit approvals: The face of Foothills County is often most seen when residents and businesses build their projects. While our departments strive to provide development and building permit services to the best of their abilities, we have seen a backlog of approvals due to the increasing amount of projects coming forward. We therefore have to rethink and improve the process to speed up the approvals experience and time-frame. The County is currently implementing a new digital process and investigating the removal of some development permit obligations. I will prioritize and continue to work with our administration and council members in supporting these important services and improving the timeliness of results.
I will continue to work with you on these addition topics: respond and find solutions to your inquires and concerns, assist you with planning matters, road safety (speed, dangerous driving, cyclist-motorist conflict, high-collision intersections), Priddis Bridge improvement project, Municipal Development Plan review, consultation regarding the level of development and density in Division 4 and the County, access to water services in West Foothills, community and recreation support, garbage services, watershed health, deal with land-use/neighbour conflict, agriculture matters, road surface maintenance, dust control, preserving dark skies, maintaining our valued country lifestyle, and more.
For Other News & Updates:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CouncillorSuzanneOel/
Email: Suzanne.Oel@FoothillsCountyAB.ca
Visit High Country News online for my previous articles.
With Best Regards,
Suzanne
Free Classifieds