Vanderhoof Mayor Gerry Thiessen believes 2016 was a banner year for his community.
The biggest story of the year was securing the funding for a new pool.
“We received our funding for our Aquatic Centre. Right now we are going through the bidding process and some fine tuning the last little while and that’s exciting because it is something Vanderhoof has waited a long long time for,” says Thiessen.
In May, a Community Forest was granted to Vanderhoof by the province.
Thiessen believes the town’s blue-collar approach gives them no reason not to think more good things are on the way in 2017. “We are a community that isn’t without challenges, any resource community has challenges but we have a lot of reason that if we work hard and our diligent some optimistic things should be able to happen in Vanderhoof.”
Thiessen is also working with the BC Government to feverishly upgrade educational opportunities. “I continue to talk to the minister on a pretty regular basis about opportunities for people in Vanderhoof and area to get training whether it is trades, seniors care, truck driving, those are the things we need in our community.”