Incumbent councillor Robert Cacchioni, in his own words
By Contributor
I am 68 years old and spent the last 39 years teaching every Grade from 4 through 11. I also taught Special Ed for 15 years and was head teacher at an alternate school in Castlegar. My last 12 years were at Crowe, where I was department head for English for four of those years. My philosophy was always, “What can I do to make each child’s life better?” and I bring this same idea and philosophy to my council responsibilities.
Politically, I have been a Councillor for nine years and the elected Council representative on the Regional District Board for three years. My positions on Council include: the Trail Regional Library Board, General Government Committee, Advisory for Education Appointee and the Negotiating Committee for both the successful Warfield recreation and the Pedestrian Pipe Bridge agreement.
On the R.D.K.B. representing Council, and the citizens of Trail, I sit on the Regional Hospital Board, the Policy and Executive Committee, Chairperson of the Environmental Services, Sewerage and Solid Waste Committees and further serve on the Finance, East End and Liquid Waste Committees. This position requires a regional view of our entire area and considerable time expended as many of these regional issues greatly impact our city.
One of the challenges facing the new council will be continuity on council. Many projects implemented in the last council term need to be brought to fruition in the next four years. This includes the retention and capital upgrades to Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital with a second access road to provide for additional parking. We also need to ensure our hospital receives the necessary capital funding and we, as a region,n retain the two-site model which includes the major hospitals positioned in Trail and Nelson. In the last election, the citizens of Trail elected only 50 per cent of the existing council from 2008 to 2011. With this election, we will have a new mayor and, with one longtime councillor choosing not to run, the change over in the past four years will be over 70 per cent. Often change is good but now, I believe, we need to seriously consider all that needs to be done and who we want to lead the city for the next four years.
Aside from the Regional Hospital, the new council will have to deal with a number of critical issues. The pedestrian Pipe Bridge needs to be tendered, managed efficiently and built as soon as possible to avoid a possible environmental disaster. The Riverfront Community Centre with the Library and Museum, if approved by the electorate, needs to be further designed and constructed. The Esplanade needs to be considered and acted upon, and council will need to decide if they wish to partner with private enterprise and build a first block of condo/apartments. These would be presold and afford no risk to the city. The Boundary Expansion proposal needs to be advanced along with the potential Teck agreement to provide for Economic Development for the entire East End region. Along with this economic proposal for the Boundary Expansion, we need to also consider the possible amalgamation with Warfield, which also allows for additional economic development as Warfield has available land for development. These two initiatives are critical to the economic security and sustainability of, not only our city, but the entire region. Our landfill needs to be considered and organic waste diversion will be required to extend the life of the landfill. Without this diversion and a new access road, also to extend the life of the landfill, we as a city and region will be subject to millions of dollars of taxation, if a new landfill site were to be required. We also must move quickly on up-grading our aging sewer plant to stage two treatment capacity to meet the requirements of the Ministry of Environment. After the successful purchase of the Trail Regional Airport we now have to move forward with new fencing required by Transport Canada. This fencing will be installed soon but the Terminal Development Plan, which flows from the Airport Master Plan Study, will have to be implemented by our new council. The first phase of this has been started recently by motion of council.
These tasks are manageable providing we have a committed mayor and council for the 2014-2018 elected terms. Resolving these issues will take time, energy, careful consideration of the process involved, experience, skill and political will. This concept of political will is often underestimated. Political will allows for the successful and timely completion of projects and initiatives within a set timeline. Many of these issues will also involve complex negotiations and a clearly set direction by a progressive and unified council. Without cooperation little can be accomplished and my strategy to resolve these many issues noted above will be to cooperate, negotiate and to bring to council, if re- elected all my experience in dealing with major issues that impact our citizens. My slogan “A proven record of getting things done” is more than mere words it is a promise to you. “You have my word on it”.
Respectfully,
Robert Cacchioni
Trail City Councillor
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