Office move centralizes Vernon services

By Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: November 04, 2012 1:00 AM
The City of Vernon hopes the centralization of services will meet the needs of residents. The building, engineering, bylaw, planning, information services, emergency social services, tourism and economic development functions are now in the former library branch next to the museum. “It’s one-stop shopping for our customers,” said Kim Flick, community development manager. The new office — known as the community services building — is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday. Sixty staff moved into the office last week. “Things went fairly well and we tried to minimize the inconvenience on the public,” said Flick. “Once we lost our computers and phones, that made it challenging but we did the best we could.” Prior to this, the staff were located in the basement of city hall, a building on the Coldstream Hotel parking lot and rental premises. Renovations to the former library branch were budgeted at $600,000 but the cost may be less. “We have been as resourceful as possible. We bought some of the lockers and tables from Zellers (which is closing out),” said Flick. The vacant space in the city hall basement will eventually be turned over to the RCMP, and renovations will be required there. “That project must still be approved by council in the 2013 budget,” said Flick. The goal is to demolish the building on the Coldstream Hotel site and sell it to developers.