By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle
Oliver will once again be in consideration for a community excellence award for social responsibility.
Town council moved to send the town’s work to reduce the speed limit to 30 km/hr on Park Drive and McKinney Road to help slow down cars in school zones and the installation of flashing crosswalk signs to be considered for this year’s award.
The Southern Interior Local Government Association (SILGA) has community excellence awards for three categories: Environmental Sustainability, Social Responsibility, and Economic Development.
The awards are to promote the environmental, social and economic well-being of SILGA member communities and to allow ideas of best practices to spread throughout the area.
For this year’s award, council considered the Town Hall 100 Year Anniversary Sign Installation, the speed limit reduction, and the installation of flashing crosswalks.
Councillor Aimee Grice explained that “as far as social responsibility goes, I have a hard time sort of fitting crosswalks into that, however, if we were going to go that route I’m wondering why we couldn’t combine those two, the crosswalks and the flashing crosswalks.”
Mayor Martin Johansen, Councillor Terry Schafer and Councillor Aimee Grice all agreed that combining the two was the best proposal and council passed the motion.
Johansen did note that this year’s recommendation doesn’t seem as strong as their past ones such as the Salmon Chief Sculpture of the OIB flag installation.
The Town of Oliver was awarded the 2019, 2021, and 2023 SILGA Community Excellence Award in social responsibility for Food Secure, the Salmon Chief Sculpture and the Installation of Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB) Flag at Town Hall, respectively.
