The Mayor of High River is looking forward to a very productive 2016.

Craig Snodgrass says he, council and the town staff have spent the last couple of years getting the town back on its feet after the flood but now it's time to move ahead.

The question is how.

"Now that we're back to normal it's a different, O.K, why are we doing what we're doing, why do we want to be the greatest town in the world and how are we going to do that,, so really defining that is something that's really important for us now, to keep the momentum going," Snodgrass says.

He says the town is in the midst of hiring an Economic Development Officer to help entice more businesses to the community especially to fill up some of the empty spaces downtown.

"Economic development in this town is a very high priority for this council," he says. "a component of that is, how do we fill these spaces downtown, how do we help the landlords get tenants, it's fine line though as to how involved the municipal government gets in that, but there's things that we can do, incentive programs whatever it is through taxes or utilities even, I don't know but we're going to wait until the EDO is hired."

The mayor says one major project he expects to see move ahead in some form is a new Centre Street bridge. He says the Province is still on board and there are design concerns since the government is not flush with cash as it had been in the past so while the Town has be be respectful of that a new bridge just has to be built.

He says whether it's two lanes or four, the substructure is the most important part of it and more lanes can be added later as long as the new bridge is higher with a wider span allowing 900 to 1,000 cubic millimetres per second under it and if there's more than that it goes into Wallaceville.

Overall Mayor Snodgrass says he's very excited about moving forward in 2016 and credits the staff for all of their hard work in getting the town to where it is since the flood two-and-a-half years ago.