Staff
After a two-year stint at the helm of the Central Alberta Economic Partnership (CAEP), Rimbey Mayor Dale Barr has resigned his position as chair of the organization but will stay on as past-chair.
During their year-end meeting held on Dec. 3, CAEP members elected Al Kemmere, reeve of Mountain View County as Barr’s replacement along with Harvey Walsh of Olds as vice-chair, Gail Parks of Red Deer as treasurer and Alice Murray of Clearwater County as secretary.
“I’ve been fortunate that the board had selected myself for two years to act as their chair. We’ve made significant strides forward in overall development in central Alberta with the 42 communities that are part of the partnership,” Barr said. “I made a decision to step down this year so the vice-chair could take over those responsibilities and bring in some new insight and I could spend some more time on projects that are right here on home ground.”
In terms of any particular pet project or favourite personal gratification, Barr said it all came down to seeing projects come to their fruition.
“I guess there’s been a number of them and I think overall the process that I was most pleased with was that we were able to take projects, begin them and complete them, and deliver them within a set time frame,” he said. We’ve also had a number of initiatives in the area of transportation and just overall working collaboratively to deliver projects has been great for us. We’ve also attracted some new investment in central Alberta from all across in Canada and around the world.”
As for handing the reigns of the organization over to Kemmere, Barr is more than confident that the membership of CAEP made the right decision.
“Al is a great gentleman,” Barr said. “I’ve worked with him over the last two years and have great respect for him and I’ll still be working with him as past chair and will continue my position on the board. I see the board as being very strong and that’s part of the success of CAEP over the last few years.”
The new executive takes office Jan. 1.