Time to be patient. Oliver is in the middle of great change and sometimes it is all a little hard to handle.

One man told me recently that Oliver should give itself a shake and wake up before the downtown area becomes a ghost town. This last weekend – another building came down adding to the number of lots available for re-development.

What is needed in our central core is aggressive investment in street level retail with housing above – to ensure that Oliver’s Main Street area – grows and thrives.

The new south mall and all its stores almost complete. Changes at the Oliver Place Mall to be finished by fall, we would hope. Our middle is shrinking at the moment with the business centre moving south.

There are more changes to be dealt with. A challenge with the adage of “there is nothing more constant than change”. Our future, however, is bright with airport development, more housing, better schools, more people, more customers and more shopping revenue.

Look on the bright side. Oliver has many things to be proud of and it’s time to start bragging about them. At a time when countries overseas are having a bad time with balancing their books – our future still looks fairly rosy by comparison.

Jack Bennest