High River is all set to move into a new phase of attention towards local economic development, and that means Business Renewal Officer Angela Groeneveld has done her job well.

Since the 2013 flood, she has been working to help recover the business community in our town, but now she says it's time to pass things over to our new Economic Development Officer.

"The number one job was to assist the town to recover the business community and work in liaison with the government for the funding to do that. So the first major project was the temporary business park, and then getting the studies done of how to recover, and then now build the team for the economic development. And we've passed the baton on to the new economic impact lead, Shawna Stonehouse, who will now take it to the next levels of recovery."

Groeneveld says she is happy with the work that's been done over the past couple of years.

"I'm very proud that we did not meet the statistics that the federal emergency management pointed out for us that 30% of our businesses would be closed after a year or two, and that's not what we've seen happen. I do plan on paying that forward and showing how we prevented to do that and I am very proud of the team here that did that."

She says one highlight for her was the opening of the temporary business park.

"The temporary business park opening day was a big day for myself, to see hope in the business owner's eyes. None of these business owners opened these doors here to get wealthy rich. They do it because they love what they do, and they love the community that they love in. So it really gave them hope at a very bad time."

Groeneveld says she is very passionate about small businesses, and after taking some time off she plans to get back out and help small businesses do what they love to do.