By Lyonel Doherty, Times Chronicle
The Town of Oliver is losing a senior staff member whose expertise will be sorely missed, according to the mayor.
Last week Martin Johansen announced that Director of Operations Shawn Goodsell was leaving the municipality to pursue employment as Summerland’s public works manager.
“We should have had a party (for you),” said Johansen, referring to Goodsell’s 15-year career in Oliver. “The knowledge you have and the experience is a real loss for the Town of Oliver.”
The mayor joked by saying he would have to send the District of Summerland a nasty email for poaching their qualified staff.
Johansen wished Goodsell the best and hoped that Oliver staff can continue to ask him questions about local operations while they “recover from this loss.”
Goodsell said he appreciated his time with the Town and admitted he has some mixed feelings about leaving.
“If someone is in a pickle about something, I’m a phone call away.”
Goodsell told the Times Chronicle that he wasn’t looking for another job, but the new employment presented itself and was a good opportunity to work closer to home. He has lived in Summerland since 1996 and has either travelled to Kelowna for work or to Oliver, spending a lot of “windshield time.”
“It was starting to catch up to me.”
Goodsell has a lot of fond memories of Oliver and wanted to accomplish more before he left, but he realized that he needed a change.
“I always thought that I may stay long enough to retire with Oliver but situations always change.”
Goodsell said he will truly miss the people [his colleagues] and the fact they take a lot of pride in their work which shows.
Career highlights for him include all of the infrastructure improvements and upgrades.
“It was sometimes a struggle to find ways to get them done but we figure it out between our staff, council and engineers.”
His advice to the new director is to learn about Oliver and how things work before implementing too many changes.
Of course, all work and no play makes life dull. So, some of his co-workers fixed that one day by tying a bunch of bras to the bumper of his car.
“So I drove all the way home to Summerland with several bras tied together and flapping behind the car, but didn’t realize why the occasional person was smiling, honking or waving to me until I got home.”
He definitely kept his guard up after that stunt.
