Editor,
Re: A familiar face returns to the Times Review, from the Apr. 23, 2014, issue of the Times Review.
Council read your comments in the Revelstoke Times Review and thought that maybe in the short three months you were here you misconstrued our quiet and non-confrontational way of working together as an indication that we are a sleepy little Village and not interested in growth or tourism.
On the contrary, we welcome it. The Development Board, Chamber of Commerce and Village have been working together to try and make this happen. We would love to have industry and business move into our town and provide more jobs and fill our schools.
We do want our Revelstoke neighbours to know that we are interested in tourism and welcome them to our hot springs. We recently renewed our commitment to the Nakusp Hot Springs and built a brand new, award winning bridge up at the hot springs. We also purchased the Cedar Chalets as we saw an opportunity to market the Nakusp Hot Springs as a package and are in the process of upgrading the units. In fact, our tourism has grown with these improvements.
It is not really appropriate to compare Nakusp and Revelstoke when you consider the amount of property tax collected in Nakusp is below $900,000 whereas in Revelstoke it is more than $9,000,000.
Contrary to your comment that we do a minimum amount of work and do not take on challenges – in the past couple of years, we have upgraded our water and sewer system so that we can handle new development, upgraded our arena and built an emergency services building that houses our fire dept., ambulance, search and rescue and regional training centre.
One comment that I continually hear from visitors to our community is how clean Nakusp is, how well our streets are plowed(in the winter), our beautiful walkway and gardens and how amazed they are at the services provided in such a small community.
We are proud of our community and welcome business and visitors.
Karen Hamling,
Mayor of Nakusp
