1. How long have you lived here?
Fourteen years.
2. What is your occupation?
Retired editor of The Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal.
3. Have you done any volunteer work here? Which group(s)?
Cache Creek Beautification Society (secretary/treasurer), Cache Creek Market (manager), Cache Creek Flood Relief Committee (chair), Cache Creek Official Community Plan (vice-chair), McAbee Fossil Beds Working Group, Graffiti Days, Soups On, Ashcroft Wellness Festival, Ashcroft and District Fall Fair.
4. Have you served before on Council?
I have never sat on Council, but I have attended every Cache Creek council meeting for the past 13.5 years.
5. Which issues are most important to you?
Business, Tourism, and Services.
6. How would you address them?
We have to develop our own business community by nurturing a culture of local entrepreneurship. We need to rejuvenate our Chamber of Commerce; encourage more locals to set up business; encourage the young with business programs in the school; use Community Futures Sun Country and the B.C. Chamber of Commerce to offer programs that would help first time businesses and help business people take their first steps. Lastly, encourage developers to build modern retail space that small businesses can rent.
The Visitor Info Centre plays a vital role in Cache Creek’s economic health. Over 6,000 travellers stopped there last year. When travellers pull off the highway and stop, they often eat, fill up on gas, visit other businesses within walking distance. These travellers help keep our downtown businesses going, which in turn keeps local people employed. There are more ways of drawing tourists, and we can offer more events and festivals like Graffiti Days; possibly set up a small museum to attract visitors and/or displays and programs that feature the McAbee Fossil Beds Heritage Site (BC) just east of Cache Creek.
Cleanup and restoration from last year’s flood have left Village financial reserves very low. It will be a challenge to keep our existing services operating, and any new services will need a lot of justification before the town commits money to them.
There are necessary municipal services like street maintenance and garbage collection, and then there are optional services like recreation and transportation. I will work hard to maintain the services that we do have and to add more if it is financially possible, but working with Ashcroft to help Cache Creek residents get the most out of the services located there, like health and policing, will have to do in some situations.
7. Additional comments.
I promise to listen to your concerns and thoughts, and represent them at the council table. I will keep an open mind when listening to new ideas. Cache Creek is a great place to live, but our industry is shrinking, and if we don’t find other sources of revenue, our taxes will start rising and residents will leave. We need to foster new ways of looking at old problems and listen to all suggestions.
Advance voting takes place at the Cache Creek Municipal Office (1389 Quartz Road) from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily from Monday, June 20 to Friday, June 24. General Voting Day is Saturday, June 25 from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Cache Creek Municipal Office.