Okotoks Mayor Tanya Thorn and members of town council will be hosting a Town Update soon.

They'll be going over highlights from last year, looking ahead to the town's planned direction in 2024, and answering questions from residents at the in-person event.

This is the second annual iteration of the event, and Thorn says it's partly intended to maintain transparency and keep locals in the know.

"This was a key piece for us as council to increase our transparency, our public engagement, and connect with the community to share information and take questions."

She says residents, understandably, don't have time to tune into every meeting and sift through council agendas.

"One of the things that is important for this council is that people understand why we've made decisions or things that are on our plate that are coming up, so that the community doesn't feel like they didn't know about something, and they understand why we've done that. The community has elected seven of us to represent them, so nine times out of ten we have more information than the community does. So, there are lots of factors that go into making those decisions and this is an opportunity to be able to have that dialogue and meet our community together."

Thorn will be making a presentation, and there will be a segment dedicated solely to the town's water supply and growth.

"We've added a kind of sub-section to the update. We're going to have a session on water and development. We hear that conversation a lot in our community around growth and water, and how it relates. We're going to try and unpack that in an easy community 101 session so that people can understand how we manage water as a community and how that relates to the development, growth, and the planning that people are seeing right now, so if you've got an interest in that, I encourage you to come and hear that," says Thorn.

Attendees are also invited to submit questions for the Q&A segment ahead of time through a form on the town's website.

Town council and administrative staff will also be there to converse with residents.

The event is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 18 at the Okotoks Art Gallery.