Town of Osoyoos CAO Barry Romanko is retiring after 10 and a half years in the position. (Submitted photo)
By Dale Boyd
Osoyoos Times
After 10 and a half years of serving the Town of Osoyoos, and a near lifetime of public service before that, Barry Romanko and his wife are going to spend his retirement getting even more acquainted with his family and the open road.
“We want to get around and just relax. We have kids and grandkids and we’ve been away from them distance-wise. It’s going to be, I think, a good opportunity to watch our grandkids grow and participate in community activities,” Romanko said.
They plan to explore Canada and the U.S. in an RV.
“And often you don’t have enough time to get to know your own province, so that is kind of on the agenda as well,” Romanko said.
Growing up in the village of Vilna, Alta. Romanko started his record of public service working with local councils and community recreation groups in rural Alberta doing strategic planning.
Romanko was also one of the first hired by Parks Canada to manage the community of Jasper. At the time, Jasper was yet to be established as a municipality.
“That was a tremendous learning experience as you can imagine. You have a community that doesn’t have local government. Many people underestimate having local government. When you don’t have it, it’s a whole new experience,” Romanko said.
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Before becoming a municipality, Jasper was operated by an advisory board, and Romanko was part of the team which established a local government agreement.
“Which was an interesting experience in itself,” Romanko said. “I was involved for six years in an environment where it was a co-management of the community. It was a very unique experience.”
Romanko has worked at all three levels of government, with the provincial government in Alberta, the federal government working for Parks Canada and ending his career at the municipal level in Osoyoos.
“I’ve always had an interest in community and what the impacts that community have on the personal growth of people,” Romanko said. “Being able to work in an environment that helps to develop the leadership, that helps to develop community was always something that was important to me.”
He has worked with multiple councils over the years in Osoyoos to achieve incremental growth during his time as CAO. Through concise planning and resort municipality funding, efforts like renovations to the arena, establishing trails and rebuilding Gyro Park were able to be accomplished during his tenure.
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“I think that was the key, working with the leadership here in the community, we were always looking at developing things that both residents and visitors could enjoy,” Romanko said.
Internally, Romanko said over the years a more “systematic approach” has been implemented with staff and council, bringing a more formal business approach to town operations. As well, he worked with councils and staff to establish the continued use of strategic planning documents.
“When I came there was no formal, written-out business planning process where residents, community groups and even some members of council didn’t know where they could input their ideas,” Romanko said.
Government transparency was another mark Romanko left on the town.
“Before coming here council meetings were not on video. I helped council review their whole sense of transparency and everybody who is linked in to a computer has the opportunity to follow local government,” Romanko said.
As Romanko gets set for retirement, Allan Chabot, formerly the CAO of Revelstoke and Merritt, will be taking the reigns at the end of July.
“A new voice is good as well. There can always be improvements and bringing somebody else in with a different perspective, maybe that’s something that is needed in the community,” Romanko said.
