With the new year comes new opportunities for a lot of people, however, Chestermere Mayor Shannon Dean wants to stay right where he is.
This year Alberta communities will be going to the polls for the 2025 municipal election to elect mayors and councillors, and the vote will be held on October 20.
"I love my job, one of the big reasons why I am running for re-election is I love that I get to serve the residents of Chestermere in capacity as mayor," said Dean.
Mayor Dean also hopes to see all six sitting councillors re-elected.
"I'm hoping all six of our councilors will also rerun and I'm hopeful that we will have some stability within our government because I think that that's important."
The 2024 byelection which saw Mayor Dean get elected was less than a year ago and according to the current mayor, the city has gotten a lot done in that short amount of time.
"When we look at the budget for 2025, we are going to be installing a raised crosswalk in each of our school zones, and the 2A Big Project that we have included in our 2025 budget is the twinning of Chestermere Blvd. to 17 Avenue. We are still working and communicating with the City of Calgary as this is half their project as well," added Dean.
Upon the 2024 byelection, Former Mayor Jeff Colvin and three other councilors were fired by the provincial government for mismanaging the city.
Dean says a lot of work has been done to bring trust back in local government.
"Another campaign promise that I had made was that I was going to be setting something up that's called 15-minute meetings with the mayor which we've been doing, lots of residents have been taking advantage and coming in and meeting with me and bringing their concerns."
If Mayor Dean is re-elected for a full term this October, he says he will focus on building infrastructure in the city. Other areas include having school sites ready to build and focusing on the city's new recreation centre.
Residents head to the polls on October 20.