Town of Golden year in review: highlights of 2022

The Town of Golden takes a look back on 2022, highlighting some of the departmental accomplishments of the year. Keep reading to learn more about what happened at Town Hall in 2022.

2023 Town Council Meeting Schedule

The schedule of all anticipated regular meetings of Golden’s Town Council in 2023 is now available to the public. Print it and put it on your fridge to make sure you never miss a Council meeting!

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Executive Administration:

• Our organization: The year marked the beginning of an internal evolution of the municipality, responding to the growing needs of the community, higher-level government requirements, and our struggle to meet these demands. This included some reorganization and recruiting. The “grey wave” continued to affect us with the retirements of three long-term employees. The job market woes across the economy have hit us as well, slowing our progress - but we are preparing ourselves for the future and what our municipality needs to be. The changes to our organization will be shown in our annual report next spring.
• Community forest: in November, Council signed a landmark agreement in principle with the Shuswap Band and the CSRD, agreeing to collaboratively see the establishment and management of a community forest in the Golden area. Successful negotiations with the Province will move this forward to a reality. 
• Reflecting on a political term: being an election year, we reflected upon the past 4-year political term’s depth of achievements of which we feel are considerable. The details of these accomplishments can be found here.
• Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI): while we did see the approval of a new RMI 3-year spending plan, it took much of the year to achieve this. In 2022, we saw the completion of the south community entrance sign and finishing work associated with the River Walk.
   

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Corporate Services & Communications:

• New website: in early 2023 a new and improved golden.ca was launched, enhancing communications and engagement with residents through an updated and easy-to-navigate website.
• Public information: we sent out over 130 news releases, public notices and newsletters, and posted over 350 times on Facebook and Instagram, about everything from job postings and volunteer opportunities to public education and special events.
• 2022 Municipal Election: residents voted for one Mayor and six Councillors along with a referendum question posed by the CSRD on borrowing funds to construct an indoor aquatic centre in the October election. A total of 1,267 people voted in the election for a total voter turnout of 42 per cent.
• Bylaw: in July we welcomed a new Bylaw Enforcement Officer to the team. Bylaw continues to focus on public education and enforcement and staff have started working on identifying and prioritizing bylaws for updating and/or consolidation.
• Social media: the Town’s social media audience and newsletter subscription list continue to see steady growth. Our audience has grown with over 700 new followers on Facebook and Instagram. Like or follow us at facebook.com/townofgolden or on Instagram @townofgolden to stay up-to-date on everything happening at the Town of Golden.
   

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Planning and Development:

• Transportation planning: work started on the Golden Transportation Plan in 2021 and after three rounds of public engagement the combined transportation and active transportation plans are anticipated to go to Council for consideration of endorsement early in the new year.
• Step Code: in early spring, the Town adopted the BC Energy Step Code which gradually and incrementally introduces energy efficiency requirements for new buildings, aiming for “net zero ready” buildings by 2032.
• Housing: staff worked with the Golden Community Economic Development to provide input and evaluation on their proposal to apply and construct a mixed-use affordable housing project in the downtown core near DJ Paper Place.
• Kicking Horse Bridges project: staff continued working with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure on a project for the replacement of the Kicking Horse River Bridges. 
• Development/building files: the Town saw unprecedented waves of development interest and applications submitted for complex projects within the community.

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Public Works:

• 9^th Avenue North Downtown Street Renewal: in 2022, the Town completed work on the 600 block of 9th Ave. N. This included upgrades and improvements for roads and deep utilities, the streetscape, buildings and the systems associated with them.
• 9^th Street South repaving: work was completed to mill, grade and repave 9^th St. S. from 10^th Ave. to 14^th Ave S.
• 8^th Avenue South multi-use path: a new pathway and formal parking were constructed along 8^th Ave S. between 9^th Street S. and the Pedestrian Bridge pathway, increasing connectivity to the downtown core and enhancing pedestrian safety.
• Flood protection: additional work was completed in 2022 to raise, reshape and armour earthen dike sections along the Kicking Horse River and repair an embankment erosion on Hospital Creek.
• 6^th Street North planning: staff started planning work for 6^th St. N. which will include a watermain loop, vacant lot servicing, road structure replacement, sidewalk, street lighting, and landscaping.

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Finance and Information Technology

• Cyber security: in 2022, work was completed to upgrade and integrate the Town’s Active Directory and Exchange into the Cloud and enabled Multi-Factor Authentication for the organization to enhance cyber security measures. 
• Interactive maps: as part of the new website, we launched a re-design of the Town’s maps online, introducing interactive GIS maps to enhance user experience and functionality of maps for residents and visitors.
• Invoicing: staff streamlined the invoice payment process for Town of Golden vendors through a successful transition from cheque payments to direct deposit payments.
• Budget: we redesigned and implemented the internal budget program to enable managers to access real-time data for projects, as well as the ability to plan 5 and 10 years out in a simplified, user-friendly manner.

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Recreation Services:

• Skate Park Expansion Project: working with the Golden Skateboard Association (GSA), the Recreation Department helped bring a major phase of the project to life. In under four months, GSA raised over $500,000 in donations and grant funding to double the size of the current skatepark. Construction on the park expansion began in late July, and 85 per cent of the project was completed before winter. In spring 2023, the skate park expansion will be completed with a bowl feature and a beginner-friendly zone.
• Mount 7 Rec-Plex Floor replacement: This fall a new hardwood sports floor was installed in the Rec-Plex. Funding was provided through a grant from the Government of Canada and the Government of British Columbia. The new floor features upgraded sports-court configurations for a safer experience and helps address the growing popularity of sports like pickleball. The court configurations also allow for multiple activities to be happening at the same time.
• Outdoor rink and courts: In partnership with the Golden Rotary Club, combined with grant funding from Columbia Basin Trust, phase two of a new outdoor rink and basketball court was completed in August 2022. The project includes a new pavement surface, curbing, permanent hockey boards and basketball hoops.
• CSRD Pool Referendum Assent: the Recreation Department assisted the CSRD’s process by providing information and answering various questions specific to the operations of the existing outdoor pool. During the 2022 election, residents of Golden and Area A voted on a proposed loan authorization bylaw. The combined results from Area A and the Town of Golden supported the loan bylaw with 1477 yes votes to 573 no votes.

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Fire Department

• New Fire Truck: a new truck, Fire Engine 7, arrived in March to replace the 22-year-old Fire Engine 6.
• Call volume: in 2022 Golden Fire Rescue had the highest call volume on record with over 350 calls as of early December.
• Training: Golden Fire Rescue continues to focus on training in an effort to get all members their NFPA 1001 Fire Fighting professional qualifications.
• Members: Did you know that less than 5 per cent of firefighters in Canada are women? Golden Fire Rescue is proud to have female firefighters make up approximately 30 per cent of the team with a total of 9 female firefighters on their team of 29, making it the highest number they’ve ever had!