After serving 25 years on the Nanton Fire Department, including being the last Chief, John G Dozeman has decided to find a new role in the town.

Dozeman, who was also a former parks and recreation manager with the town, is running for a seat on town council in the municipal election.

He decided to throw in his hat because he was always interested in local politics.

"I figured it was the perfect transition for me," said Dozeman. "To go from being employed with the Town of Nanton to helping make some of the decisions to keep our community great and to continue building on what some of our pervious councils have done."

He says growth is important for the community.

"If the community doesn't grow we are going to go the way of the dinosaurs."

But Dozeman adds we need to prepare for growth.

"We need to make that growth an easier process for business especially. And expanding on the commercial sector will expand on the residential sector.  It goes hand-in-hand."

"I do believe we need to find a reasonable rate in which we grow at, not 10 percent, our average has been about two or two-and-a-half percent."

He thinks it is important to stay at that rate and it will help to spread the tax base out.

"We don't need to have an explosion like High River or Okotoks. We need to keep the ball rolling and be able to provide services for citizens of Nanton that are here now and for potential new residents."

Dozeman says it is also vital to have good communities with residents.

"It is really important that we keep that open dialogue, that we start involving more groups or more citizens in contentious matters. We need to make sure we have the full picture of what the communities concerns are and what we can do as a council to make things better."

An example he says is the recent meeting between the residents on 26th Ave. and the Town to resolve the traffic issues on the road.

Dozeman said because of his involvement in Nanton he has a good understanding of infrastructure.

"I understand the importance of the infrastructure, what we have now, what we need in the future, and we need to make sure what we have now is worked on, well kept and maintained so we don't end up with needing critical replacement of infrastructure."

He has resigned as the fire chief to make sure there is no conflict if he is elected, although that was a hard decision for him.

"I am really excited for the opportunity. For me I have been serving the community of Nanton the fire department for a very long time as a firefighter and I look forward to continuing to serve the community in a different capacity."

 

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