The West Boundary may soon be doing a recruitment drive for another doctor.
Mayor Nipper Kettle told council at their Feb. 24 meeting that Dr. Ajaero had met with him to tell him that he is planning on moving out of the area, possible sometime this year.
When contacted for comment, Ajaero confirmed the story but said he’d not made any firm plans as yet. He told the Times he would keep his patients informed.
Kettle said he immediately contacted Ingrid Hempf, regional director of acute care for Kootenay Boundary with the Interior Health Authority, and was told that she was going to look into it and “try to sort it out as soon as they can.”
In speaking of the challenge of finding another doctor, Kettle said the Greenwood health centre is going to need “a bunch of work”.
Kettle said he would contact Interior Heath to see if some of the equipment they have in storage could be used to upgrade the Greenwood medical clinic.
Kettle stressed that Ajaero had not yet given written notice.
Dr. Ajaero practices at both the Greenwood and Rock Creek clinics.
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Greenwood council threw their support behind the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) in calling for retention of the Agricultural Land Reserve as one province-wide zone, retention of the Agricultural Land Commission as a province-wide, independent administrative body with judicial powers, and provision for an opportunity for local governments to discuss any proposed changes to the ALR with the province and the ALC.
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The city also gave approval for the Greenwood Board of Trade (BOT) to use Lions Park to host Canada Day on July 1 and Founder’s Day on July 12 this year.
“The Board of Trade feels that both these events fall under our mission statement and our service agreement with the city,” said a letter from the BOT. “With regard to Founder’s Day, we would like all organized groups to come together as partners and work towards making this the best Founder’s Day ever.”
Council also agreed to provide some city crews to help with set up and take down, and to put on the fireworks display.
Greenwood CAO Robin Dalziel sent a memo to council regarding Founder’s Day. “I feel this event is a critical one for Greenwood. It ties the community to our history and gives us a chance to celebrate our past and look forward to a great future.
“My understanding from last year’s events was that the previous organizer of the event, Mr. Les Williams of Greenwood, has resigned from that position. This was communicated verbally to several council members and was acknowledged by city council with the presentation of a certificate of appreciation to Mr. Williams on Aug. 27, 2013.
“I would like to express to council my willingness to work with a new organizer of the event under the guidance of council. I am also open to advice from any and all who have been associated with this city tradition.”
“Are you ready to let the BOT work on this and try to gather community help?” Kettle asked the rest of council. “To me that seems to be the right way to go.”
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Councillor Colleen Lang reported that three members of the fire department have passed their First Responder course and are waiting for certificates.
She also noted the department has a junior member program for youth as young as 15.
“There are a lot of chores junior members can do without putting them in danger,” Lang said.
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Councillor Ashton reported that the Greenwood Economic Development Committee (BEDC) will be hosting a spring dance on April 12. She said proceeds will go toward projects along the main street.
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Ashton also reported on behalf of the ballpark committee that the drawings for the concession are now complete and they have advertised for bids.
“We are now looking to council for approval of approximately $1,000 for engineered drawings for the completion of the multi-use sports field,” she said. “From there again we go through the process of coming up with a bid package and put it out for contractors.”
Council approved the commissioning of drawings for the multi-use sports field with the cost not to exceed $1,000.
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Councillor Barry Noll reported that Community Futures Boundary is working on some programs for the BEDC. One of them is the new tourism information centre for Rock Creek. “They are pushing that ahead for this summer,” he said.
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This was the second meeting of Greenwood Council where the only payments made under Budgets and Accounts were for payroll accounts.
“We ran into a cash flow crunch in January,” city administrator Robin Dalziel told council. “So we had to delay making some of the bill payments a little bit later than we’d have liked. We got some grant reimbursements from the General Strategic Priorities Fund grant. When that came in we paid a whole bunch of bills—this is the two weeks after we paid those bills.
“Hopefully within a month or two we will be back to a more normal flow of the bills going through the office. That’s why it became a bit of a lump at one point. The next one will have a lot more cheques on it. It will be a little lumpy in terms of how the cheques are going through for a little while.”
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Council is looking over two Grand Forks bylaws that were forwarded by RCMP Staff Sgt. Jim Harrison for their consideration.
One is a noise enforcement bylaw. Council is comparing their own to the Grand Forks bylaw.
Harrison had been to council last month to deliver his annual report and he was following up on discussion regarding use of RCMP to enforce city bylaws.
The other bylaw being studied by council is a regulation covering access to public parks.
“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel – just reword something like this,” said Kettle, adding that the adoption of these bylaws should be done without using a lot of staff time.
The bylaws were referred to the next meeting to give council time to study them.
Dalziel said they would also need to review the ticketing bylaw because it is a necessary piece of the enforcement puzzle.