By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle
Downtown revitalization, affordable housing, and the Station Street Market highlight Oliver’s priorities for 2024.
Wayne Anderson, chief administrative officer for Oliver updated council on the town’s strategic plan, and what the priorities and action plan are for 2024.
The last time an update was provided was almost a year ago in 2023 and there have been developments in the priorities and action plan since. There are six main priorities for 2024.
The first priority is to work on the development of new multi-family housing projects in the downtown core. Part of the action plan to make this priority a reality will be defining how to proceed with developing town owned land and an inventory review.
Anderson’s report explained that there is potential for the town land on Main St. to be used for family-orientated rental development which can be partially funded through the new BC Builds program.
The second priority is to help make sure the start up for the Station Street Market beginning on June 2 is a success. The market will be running Sundays from June 2 to Sept. 24 and is an important piece of the Grow Oliver Plan.
The town is also prioritizing the execution of the recommendations from the Airport Master Plan. The plan is almost completed and will be funded beginning this year.
The town is also prioritizing additional promotions of the Town of Oliver Mobile App and Voyent Alert. In 2023, there were over 30,000 downloads of the Town of Oliver Mobile app.
Along with this comes the priority of improving communication to the public, including multiple channels for advanced notification of capital projects. The action plan for this priority will focus on expanded social media communication and an increase in the monitoring of Facebook, Instagram and X.
Another new initiative that will take place this summer is the Walk with the Mayor days in June 2024. This initiative will give community members a chance to walk around town with Mayor Martin Johansen and town staff and ask questions.
Johansen explained that “it was actually a part of Seniors Week and it was their idea to have a walk with the mayor around town”. He continued to say that it was in no way exclusionary and that everyone is welcome.
Councillor Aimee Grice noted that all the councillors should be more accessible in this way. She offered up some ideas such as coffee with the councillors, or informal meetings with youth in the town to extend the accessibility of the council members to Olivarians.
Another initiative in the strategic plan was the implementation of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) around town. Town staff were reviewing web based cameras that the Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB) were testing around their facilities and businesses. Town staff need to conduct a review to ensure Freedom of Information Privacy (FOIP) is not infringed if they pursue this further.
Councillor David Mattes also asked town staff about the Ditch Trail Project and where that sits in the strategic priority list. Kelly Mercer, director of operations explained that they are close to starting up the project again, and mostly the process of finishing has to be completed. They need to do surfacing, lighting, benches etc., and the town is planning for a grand opening in August.
The Strategic Plan 2023-2027 was formed in workshops that took place in January 2023 defining what the town would like to see accomplished over the next five years.
The next update will take place in October 2024. This was the final priority of town staff, to effectively line up the next update before entering discussions about the budget. This choice was made so that the town can re-prioritize before those discussions take place.
