Contacted at home, Larry Schwartzenberger says he doesn’t get sworn in until October and council will be starting budget discussions – so he has a “steep learning curve” as a result of his electoral victory Saturday.

The two ideas he is eager to work on is getting information out to new corrections workers that will be moving to the area. The second idea is to get the Town to sponsor the idea of a youth advisory committee made up of students interested in having a say in the future right here at home.

Encourage residential and commercial growth within town limits to increase our tax base and offer expanded employment opportunities to our citizens. A larger tax base, he says, will help to moderate future tax rate increases, a major concern for a large portion of our citizens.

Schwartzenberger would like to see Council be more aggressive on low income housing, a real need in the community. Previously, a parcel of land was designated for low income housing. We should be working with the various service organizations in Oliver and higher levels of government to see if we can’t make some headway on this issue.

Oliver has an opportunity to market this community to the 250 families that will be moving to the South Okanagan to work at the new Correctional Facility. We need a focused effort by Council to ensure that these families know that Oliver wants them to be part of our community.

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