The North Okanagan Regional District board has a new chairman. Lumby mayor Eric Foster was unchallenged for the one year position. Foster takes over from the retired Jerry Oglow, and would like to see the board set up more committees. "I'd like to see us go back to that type of a system where we had a regional transit committee and a solid waste committee, rather than just be under regional services. Some of these committees need to be very specific." Foster says one of his main goals will be to keep the peace between the city and rural reps on the board. "No question about it and we're going to try to work on that right off the bat. If we achieve anything in the next year, if we can smooth that road out, then I think we've been very successful."
The second term village mayor also has some plans for NORD itself. "It's a great organization (but) we need to move it into the 21st Century, and I think that's the feeling around the (board) table. Regional districts have changed, the needs of the people, the communities have changed, and that's what we need to do." Area F (Rural Enderby) director Herman Halvorson will continue as the vice chair after defeating Vernon director Patrick Nicol in a vote by the 13 board members.Seven of the 13 directors present at Wednesday's meeting were new to the board, although some of them like Spallumcheen's Will Hansma and Nicol have served on NORD in the past.
