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After nearly four years at the helm of the Village of Pemberton’s staff, Chief Administrative Officer Lori Pilon will be stepping down at the beginning of next year.
Pilon announced on Tuesday (Nov. 17) that she intends to hand over the reins effective Jan. 5, 2010, to devote more time to her family and focus on completing her Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Victoria.
Pilon took up her post in Pemberton in April 2006, after serving as administrator for the Village of Lions Bay for 4 ½ years. During both tenures, she travelled back to her home west of Kamloops on weekends, so she is seeking to reduce her commuting and professional workload to shift her focus to family and finishing her degree.
In a press release issued Tuesday after the morning’s regular council meeting, Pilon said she has found her work in Pemberton rewarding, and she added that she’s optimistic about the future facing this community.
“Most recently, it’s been very exciting to receive funding for the development of the skatepark, as I have no doubt that will be a well-used facility for this community,” Pilon said.
In Pilon’s tenure, Pemberton saw the completion of major projects such as the work with the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District to finish the new community centre and library, the installation of a new water well, improvements to the trails around One Mile Lake and that little party known as the 2008 Pemberton Festival.
Pilon pointed to particularly meaningful projects such as the opportunities to collaborate with the Mount Currie Band and with the Pemberton Valley Seniors Society on initiatives, plus working with the Pemberton Animal Wellbeing Society to convert an abandoned Village building for use as a kennel.
Mayor Jordan Sturdy commended Pilon’s compassion and attention to detail, while wishing her all the best in future pursuits.
“It has been a pleasure to work with Lori,” Sturdy said in the statement.
Pilon has said she will stay on through to January to help bring a permanent new CAO, or a temporary replacement, into the fold.
Downtown group sought
To pursue progress on the Downtown Enhancement Strategy that the Village adopted in June, council voted at Tuesday’s meeting to have staff work toward creating an organization to implement the strategy.
The initiative has attracted interest from community members full of ideas for the downtown, and Village staff members have tried to address some of the short-term action items proposed in the strategy, such as giving interim permission for some outdoor patios, better definition on roads and enhancement of Pioneer Park, according to a staff report from Caroline Lamont, manager of development services.
Village staff has presented the strategy to several local groups, collected feedback elsewhere, and sought referral comments from eight local groups. But so far only the Pemberton Museum and Archives Society has responded in detail, while the Chamber of Commerce has raised concerns about the suggestion to move the Visitor Info Centre off the highway and into downtown.
There has been limited action on mid-term items such as plans for pedestrian routing, parking, open spaces, a downtown icon, lighting and street furniture and arts, culture and heritage, Lamont wrote.
“The challenge for the implementation of the strategy is that there is no single entity that is empowered to coordinate the various initiatives,” and no sustained funding for them, she wrote.
Local governments are important players in the picture, but a wider scope of participants needs to be engaged, Lamont told council on Tuesday.
Sturdy voiced support for the recommendations to seek an appropriate structure for a downtown oversight organization, to help the group organize “power sessions” related to the strategy’s action items and to investigate funding sources.
Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) “are something we have been talking about for a long time,” Sturdy said. He suggested there should be further discussion and investigation of a BIA and Tax Increment Financing fund, an option Lamont raised in her report.
Councillor Ted Craddock said council should be “very careful going forward” in considering a BIA and tax funding alternatives, and he feels other parties need to come to the table about these ideas and the downtown strategy.
“I think we need more of the community to buy into this,” he said.
Councillor Susie Gimse said she thinks it will be important to find a way to engage everyone, because the state of the Village’s downtown matters to all area residents.
“It is of interest to the entire community,” she said.
Budget meetings set
It’s that time of year again where the Village’s council and staff will review the 2009 year-end forecast and deliberate on the 2010 budget. Committee of the Whole finance meetings have been scheduled for Dec. 1 at 1 p.m., Dec. 8 at 1 p.m. and Dec. 15 at 10:30 a.m., with the approval of the next strategic plan and provisional budget expected at the Jan. 12 council meeting.
