So now we know who our new municipal manager - or whatever title he is going to bear - is going to be.
And on its face it looks like mayor and council made a pretty solid choice in Terrace administrator Ron Poole.
The reaction of one reader to the news was along the lines of thank goodness it wasn’t some Southerner that didn’t know anything about our area.
In Poole we get a bonus in that not only does he know the North well - before Terrace he was administrator for Chetwynd - being from just up the street he is very familiar with Kitimat.
Which means he can, to use that awful phrase, hit the ground running.
Another plus is the fact that his appointment is the unanimous choice of mayor and council. That means they can all take the credit, and conversely, cannot gripe about his hiring down the road.
After a conversation with my colleague at the Terrace Standard I can report that his style in council meetings will be poles apart from that of Trafford Hall, meaning that TV viewers are unlikely to get confused into thinking he is an elected member of council.
I therefore unreservedly withdraw my suggestion of a couple of months ago that mayor and council should look at removing the new manager from the table as per the Stantec Organizational Review - to the great relief of council no doubt.
Some people may be a little surprised that Poole should take what might appear as a step down, leaving a larger community for a smaller one.
They shouldn’t be: he’ll undoubtedly earn more here and, after years in perpetually cash-strapped Terrace where expenditures of a few thousand drew much angst, he gets to come to the land of milk and honey.
It will be interesting to see if his experience of having had to run a very tight ship for years in Terrace rubs off on our council’s often carefree spending habits.
However, I have one small criticism of Mr. Poole even at this early stage. Instead of starting work on July 4, he should have insisted on Friday, July 1.
That way at his first council meeting he could have used the classic thank you line to the people of Kitimat for marking his arrival with a big parade.
So kudos to mayor and council and welcome to our community Mr. Poole.
Northern Sentinel