INCUMBENT MAYOR STEVE MORISSETTE
Committing to serve your community for four years is a big commitment, I thought seriously about the time, energy, and focus required to bring value to the office of Mayor as I made my decision. I still have the desire to bring about further positive change to our community and I am grateful for the confidence the Community has in giving me the opportunity to serve another term.
Over the coming term I expect to work with our new council to focus on the development of the former Middle School Site for Daycare and assorted housing types to meet the need of our growing area. The second focus will be Downtown amenities to attract people to spend time downtown which will support existing business and attract new small businesses. This will include continued work developing a community gathering space alongside the Creek behind the Memorial Hall that can host outdoor weddings, celebrations, music events ,markets, and a re-design of the lower Creekside park to provide a flood mitigation area/access to the creek for summer recreation. In the existing Railway Park Downtown we will continue the work with BV Recreation on building a replica train station that can be used for smaller functions and a rotating museum space, as well as moving the Historic Park School into the Park as well. Our third focus will be the environment, all projects and policies will be moved forward through a climate lens. We have partnered with the RDKB to pool our grant money towards building an active transportation plan for Fruitvale that ties into the proposed Green link between Fruitvale and Rossland. We will also be building Fruitvale’s plan to meet our goal of 100% renewable energy by 2050 in the coming months.
I am proud of the work we have done this term to build the foundation of the focus outlined above, we worked very hard building relationships with and getting a commitment from the BC Gov’t to work with us to build a 37 seat childcare centre and a 31 unit housing complex, as well as our work with BV Recreation to take charge of our successful seniors programs, and the construction of the Replica Train Station.
I am very thankful to our residents for supporting me in another term, and for the great candidates who have stepped up for the council election, I am looking forward to a productive term with our new team.