A Letter from the Town of Strathmore Mayor

It is my pleasure to bring greetings on behalf of Strathmore Town Council. I also want to express our support of the Strathmore and District Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber, with your support, has a positive future. We hear of the negatives in our economy on daily basis right now. I would like to share with you some positives. 

One of our citizens explained our community to me this way. The County; Rockyford, Hussar, Standard and Strathmore, all have an agricultural-based economy. Agriculture is our strongest economic driver. The oil industry is the cream on the top. The cream right now has disappeared, but we know it will return. We will need to support our people that have been directly affected by this downturn. Our community has, and is, taking advantage of our agricultural base. Strathmore has seen strong growth and there are positive numbers to share with you. Allow me to update you on some of the activity in our community. Recently, the Ag. Society invited me to the WPCA Tarp Auction in Calgary. Numbers were lighter this year, but I saw our community come together to support our Strathmore Stampede. The Canadian Rockies International Rodeo and Music Festival, with headliner Terri Clark, will be here during the Canada Day weekend. Tourism Alberta, Community Futures Wild Rose, Canadian Badlands Tourism and Calgary Regional Partnership are working on increasing our tourism reach. 

Calgary Regional Partnership is working to bring a regional transit system to our community in the near future. The Newsy Neighbour recently celebrated their 100^th issue and sponsored a Best in Business Awards night that was very well attended by our business community. In the past year, we have seen 38 new businesses open their doors. We have 2 shoe stores, a new market & deli, a new sports equipment store, a new owner at the jewellery store and the old Royal Bank building has been occupied. These are a few of the happenings in the downtown. 

PJ’s Appliances moved out and Real Deals moved in – and it’s become a town treasure. On the west side of town, we have a new liquidation store. A Dodge Dealership will be opening soon. There is talk of a new smaller mall on the west side of town. On the east side, Co-op has a new building, Peavey Mart has opened and it is expected Mark’s Work Warehouse will moving to a new building in a mall north of Peavey Mart and Co-op. Nearby, a new medical clinic with doctors has opened. Golden Hills School Division is working to have a new K to 9 School with an attached recreation facility opened for the fall of 2017 on the east side of town. 70 single family homes and 14 multi-family homes have been built in the past year. Edgefield has seen 14 homes occupied. This is only a partial list. 

There are many good things happening in our community. When you support your District Chamber of Commerce, your community will be even more successful. I believe a strong Chamber of Commerce makes a strong business community and a strong business community makes a strong Chamber of Commerce.

Congratulations on a successful year and Town Council wishes you even more success in the coming year.

Strathmore Mayor, Mike Ell