West Central Online recently caught up with Rosetown CAO Darcy Olson to talk about the latest from Town Council and what the Town has been up to this winter.
The first topic discussed was the upcoming paving project on 2nd Avenue from Highway 4 to 1st Street West.
“The strategic plan that was done a few years ago with the residents identified paving as a priority. So, any kind of paving that we can do to improve the pavement infrastructure and the access around town is quite important to the people of the town of Rosetown.”
We then shifted our conversation to the budget for the Town of Rosetown.
“We're working on the budget, which of course setting of the budget leads to the setting of the taxation rates for the year, so that's important to the town people. We're not quite done it yet. We are still getting a few last-minute quotes in and we're preparing tenders for the lagoon expansion, which is a $4.2 million project. We're also working on tenders for the installation of a new ice plant at the arena, which any small community, the arena is the hub of the community in the winter time, so it's important to make sure that that facility keeps working and running right.”
Olson has an extensive background in municipal government, and served as CAO for Rosetown from 2002-2011, before returning to the post back in October of 2022. Olson talks about extensive history in municipal governance.
“I was the assistant administrator of Rosetown from 1985 to 1990, and then I left the town's employee to work for the RM of St. Andrews. And then I came back to the town in 2002 as the administrator and I worked for the town until the end of 2011 and then I was on town council from April 2018 until October 2020 as a counselor. And now I'm in the position of chief administrator of Officer for the town since October 24th to the present.”
When then talked about him returning to the position, and what is different, and what remains the same.
“It's familiar and new all at the same time. It's been 11 years since I was the administrator in the town, so the same building and a number of the same people, but over the 11 years things have moved around, things have changed a bit and there's new focus and emphasis, so that's all new. But it still feels rather familiar, you're still dealing with a lot of the same people.”
West Central Online will have more on the Rosetown budget, the next time we catch up with CAO Darcy Olson.