Area B Director re-elected, ready to forward major projects

“It was [an intersting election], you may have noticed in general, and not just in our area but really all over the province, there was a lot of change,” Fleming told Vernon Matters.

“So there was obviously a common interest of having change throughout the province. There was change locally at the City of Vernon, not so much necessarily at Coldstream and some of the smaller communities [such as Spallumcheen], there was change at Enderby [and Rural Enderby], and certainly a change in Armstrong .“

Despite the changing of local leaders Fleming said he “ran hard to win,” visiting over 800 homes door knocking during the campaign, and managed to bring out his message and win the election.

Looking forward, the now five-time Director said he will be looking to work to help Rachel Enns, the new director for BX/Silverstar, up to speed with the role.

“Areas B and C share quite a few services: our general parks services with our parks and trails, the parks services that are shared with Vernon Coldstream and the two electoral areas, fire protection, emergency services, the fire training centre. There’s lots of things we’re working on together.”

The Director-Elect also had a major project he would like to see forwarded once back in office.

“The main project would be the North Okanagan Wastewater Recovery project, that’s the community sewer that’s now under construction but the only part under construction is in the Township of Spallumcheen,” Fleming told Vernon Matters.

“I’m working, and hopefully Rachel will join me, on getting our part underway. We have some limitations that the municipalities don’t, Spall was able to move quicker to do something, and I’m working with administration, as will Rachel, to get our portion of the project tendered and hopefully in the early stages of construction. It might be a little bit optimistic but I’m hoping in this calendar year something can start happening because there’s all kinds of preparation work required even when a tender is issued. There’s lots to go, there’s lots to work on, but that’s the goal: to get it underway so construction can start on the Regional District portion of the project.”

Once complete,. the new plant will be able to move properties in Spallumcheen and Areas B and C off of septic and onto sewer, and that wastewater would be reclaimed and used to support the local agricultural sector. It will also reduce the amount of wastewater leaking into Swan Lake. Fleming also pointed out that over 85 per cent of the $50-million project was being covered through grants.

On top of this project, Fleming would like to see more done to solidify Vernon as the Trails Capital of B.C., a title registered in 2023.

“We’re more and more deserving of the moniker because we’ve done a lot. It started with the Rail Trail and the associated Crystal Waters Trail that I started, certainly the expansions of the Grey Canal Trail system and the BX Creek Trail system. Those are the big ones but there’s also trails through North Vernon Park, the Swan Lake Nature Reserve Park. So I [want to work on] passive recreation in general, trails and natural spaces,” Fleming said.

“[I’m] trying to work with highways to improve roadside pedestrian and cycling access, which is, in rural areas, harder to come by. There’s been some of that and I hope to do more in this area. We need a willing partner, that being the Ministry of Transportation as the responsible agency for all the roads in the rural areas, at different times it’s come and gone a little bit but I’m hoping to get a little bit more uptake there.”

Fleming also wants to see more fire protection and FireSmart work done locally over his next term, especially in areas adjacent to forests.

The municipal election was running when a snap provincial election was called, with voters going to polls to elect their MLAs Oct. 24, one week after voting for their municipal representatives.

Fleming said the two elections running back to back did cause some confusion.

“I and my helpers visited in person probably 850 different homes, and one of the leading things we would say is ‘We’re first, this election we’re talking about is the first election coming up on the 17th of the month, not the 24th,'” Fleming said.

“Our first goal was to get people out to vote, and just make sure ‘You know there’s two elections a week apart, so make sure you know we’re first.’ That was sort of a steady message.”

He also noted there was “a certain amount of angst” around having the elections back-to-back, but made sure to include that fact in his messaging while speaking with citizens.

by Liam Verster

Area B Director re-elected, ready to forward major projects

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