An educator has entered the Black Diamond mayoral race and said he hopes to improve communication between the Town and residents, support small businesses, possibly freeze taxes for a few years and increase outdoor play areas for young children.
Brendan Kelly has been teaching in Eden Valley for eight years and living in Black Diamond for six. He said he has been planning to enter politics for a long time but was waiting to get to know more about the Town and its needs before running in the municipal election.
“I wanted to make sure I had a good enough understanding of the community before I jumped into politics,” he said. “After the last eight years, I feel I have a much better understanding.”
Speaking with business owners through his side business and getting to know residents convinced Kelly it was time to act. Originally, he planned to run for council but felt that it was important to have more than one mayoral candidate.
“As we got closer to the deadline, I had sat with a couple of our small businesses and a couple of our current councillors and it just didn’t sit right with a lot of people that the mayor in Black Diamond and Turner Valley would be running unopposed,” Kelly said. “It doesn’t seem like a real democratic process.”
There is potential to improve the Town’s communication, Kelly said. Often he is able to get information more readily in online community forums than from the Town’s website, he said, and he wants to change that.
“Using social media platforms more appropriately and updating our website, so it can be more user friendly,” he said are ways he would improve the information flow between the Town and the citizens.
Kelly said he appreciated Turner Valley Mayor Barry Crane’s efforts to keep residents informed through daily Facebook Lives during a snowstorm last year. Using social media and technology to keep Black Diamond’s residents informed would be an area he would improve, Kelly said.
Making sure small businesses get the support they need is also important, he added.
“The biggest thing we love out here is our small businesses,” he said.
Directing people from outlying communities to where the parking is and nearby businesses would be a step in the right direction, Kelly said.
Taxes are also an issue Kelly said he has been hearing about but said it is a tough issue to tackle with the proposed amalgamation coming up.
“It is difficult to decrease taxes and increase services,” Kelly said. “The hope through amalgamation is that your taxes would get lower. I don’t know if that is going to be the case. But if elected, that is one of the things I would look at. How do we manage the resources with Turner Valley, if not to lower the taxes, to put a freeze on them for a couple of years. Maybe we can give our citizens a break while we look over things.”
He would also like to see more amenities in Town for younger children.
“One thing I’ve been doing is talking to Turner Valley is how much it costs to run their splash park,” he said. “Could we look at something like that in our town?”
Kelly will be at a meet-the-candidates night at Hard Knox Brewery starting at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 22. He said the event was planned to be weekly, but due to recent COVID restrictions that may change, adding he may have some Facebook Live events as well.
