Castlegar at UBCM - from Walks to waste and beyond ...
By Kyra Hoggan
While newly-elected city councillor Florio Vassilakakis, after his landslide victory in Saturday’s byelection, prepares to be sworn in at council’s Oct. 7 meeting (he won by 408 votes, compared to the next-closest candidate’s 244), mayor Lawrence Chernoff, councillors Dan Rye, Kevin Chernoff and Gord Turner, along with city manager John Malcolm, are attending the Union of BC Municipalities convention in Vancouver.
According to Rye, Castlegar has already made quite a stir at an event today, where the Sunflower City was one of only three communities asked to present information about local projects.
“This can not be said enough, Castlegar and Sculpturewalk were the hit of the mid-sized communities forum today at UBCM,” Rye reported on Facebook. “No matter where we went after the presentation by Joy (Barrett) and John (Malcolm), we were being asked questions. We have definitely got the attention of B.C. Communities and beyond. Congratulations to the Sculpturewalk Committee for a job well done.”
Mayor Chernoff said, in an interview from the convention, that it’s been, “a pretty spectacular response.”
Chernoff also said Castlegar isn’t bringing any resolutions forward, nor yet meeting with any ministers.
“We’re really not meeting with any ministers at all – we generally do that separately, in Victoria,” he said. “The big part for us here is learning other communities’ best practices, getting new ideas, gathering information – that’s why we come here. There’s always a lot to learn.”
He said they’re also looking forward to attending an emergency meeting slated for Thursday regarding the MMBC, a new strategy for dealing with paper and packaging product recycling, adding Castlegar has not yet signed on to the scheme.
“They’re trying to rush it through, but there’s not a lot of facts or information about money and services – the kind of things we need to know to make good decisions at the municipal level,” he said.
He said where Castlegar lands on the issue will very likely be impacted by Thursday’s meeting, and promised more details as the convention progresses.
The convention runs from Sept. 16 to 20.
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