Invermere Mayor Al Miller says the community has made strides in 2024 despite getting hit with two heavy wind storms.
Miller says the District is especially proud of its short-term rental regulation bylaw.
“We started working on that a few years ago. We felt like we needed to put together a good, solid bylaw that would support short-term rentals, but support keeping that neighbourhood feel,” said Miller.
“We feel like we did a pretty good job at it. We’re going to review it in May and see how we’ve done. I think we have a fairly good mix and I think our bylaw will hold pretty well.”
However, Miller says even though the STR Bylaw was one of the District’s greatest successes of the year, it also came with some headaches.
“Just trying to get it there and get the right things in it was a lot of work,” said Miller.
“When we review it, we’ll have a really close look at where we can improve. I think all-in-all, we came up with a pretty good solution.”
Miller says the District took steps to improve the community’s parks and venues.
“We fixed up the parklands beside James Chabot Park, we did some landscaping down there, cleaned it up and planted some grass,” said Miller.
“We also bought a mobile stage to up the quality of our events – to have a proper stage for people to perform on.”
Invermere also had some major infrastructure projects going on throughout the year.
“We redid 7th Avenue and really tuned it up so it’s a lot smoother with nice pavement throughout,” said Miller.
The community faced significant difficulties in August and September, when a pair of windstorms ripped through the Columbia Valley, leaving widespread damage in their wake.
“We had two nasty windstorms that really tore up Invermere and took down hundreds of trees,” said Miller.
“There was some major cleanup and I think there’s still more to do. It was an environmental event that came out of the blue and hit us pretty hard.”
Miller says he’s looking forward to more improvements and success in 2025.
“I want to wish all of our constituents a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and the happiest of holidays,” said Miller.
“Take care of yourselves, stay healthy and we’ll see everybody in the new year.”
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