Town of Oliver website: With everyone poised and ready to participate after their summer vacations, September marked the official kickoff of our Airport Strategic Planning Project. When we announced the project in July, it was heralded as the first step in an overall Oliver Airport Improvement Project focused on ensuring the Town’s readiness to meet current and future demand for air services and providing a catalyst for economic development in the south Okanagan region. Throughout the latter part of the summer, our consultant team was busy analyzing information provided to them by the Town, conducting site tours of the existing airport of the Town and gaining a solid understanding of the potential our airport represents. A Project Advisory Group made up of local business representatives and citizens was also established for the purpose of providing our consultants with their perspectives on what our future airport should become.

On September 21st an evening workshop was conducted in Oliver. Members of our Project Advisory Committee and our consultant team met for the first time. Purposes of this workshop were to:

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Familiarize Project Advisory Group members with the project’s goals and objectives

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Review earlier planning work looking at the airport’s future and conclusions and recommendations coming out of that work

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Provide a forum for each person to express their own perceptions, attitudes, dreams and words of caution, as well as those of the stakeholders they represent, about the airport’s future

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Identify a target, in very general terms, that the Town of Oliver Airport should aspire to become in the future

As of this moment, the results of that workshop are being reviewed, edited and approved by the Project Advisory Group members before being presented to the Project Steering Committee as the initial recommended direction for the airport’s future.

Everyone is committed to this project and is excited about the prospects of what an improved airport means to our Town and to the surrounding communities. But we need your help as well.

On Thursday, October 20th from 04:30 PM

until 08:00 PM we will be holding a drop in,

public open house at the Oliver Elks Hall.

Here you will have a chance to see the results of the work to date and share ideas about what our Town’s airport should become. Members of Town Council, the Project Steering Committee, the Project Advisory Group and consultant team will be available to answer your questions and receive your comments. There will also be comment forms that you can fill out. Feedback received at the open house will be an important part of the decision making process needed to move us into the next stages of planning; choosing an option for the future that will work for all of us.

Your airport represents value to all residents and businesses, and not to just pilots and aircraft operators. Take advantage of this opportunity and let us hear your ideas about how we can best protect and manage this value. Come out to the open house on October 20th, talk to us, share your ideas with your fellow citizens and let’s make this a legacy benefitting the Town and the South Okanagan.

If you have any questions regarding the project or the open house please contact Tom Szalay, Municipal Manager, at (250) 485-6200 or tszalay@oliver.ca