The Village of Telkwa has hired a new director of operations.
Lev Hartfeil took over the position last month from Gordon Davies.
He moved here last summer from the Lower Mainland.
“My partner and I moved up here after we bought an old house that was actually built by her great, great-grandparents in Telkwa,” he said.
Hartfeil is a professional engineer and most of his background is in construction management.
“Before I moved to the Bulkley Valley I worked for a contractor as a project manager for infrastructure projects all over western Canada,” he said. “When we moved up here I started working with McElhanney out of their Smithers office. It was good there but when this opportunity came up, it was close to home and I was kind of excited [about] getting involved in the local community here in Telkwa.”
He said he wants to help keep Telkwa a nice place to live and added he’s excited to be a part of planning for the future of the village while getting existing projects through to completion.
“It is an exciting time in Telkwa because we are getting a big increase in grant funding over the last little while so there are a lot of capital projects that are starting to come up. That is something I’m excited about so I want to make sure these projects get completed safely, on time and on budget.”
Right now he’s planning and designing three water main upgrades and recently helped award the consulting contract for dike upgrades.
Mayor Brad Layton thinks he’s a good fit so far.
“I’m happy that we got him and everything that he has brought up to discuss with us is stuff that we need to be dealing with so I think he’ll be a good director of operations,” said Layton.
Hartfeil plans on sticking around for a while.
“Living here is great, it is a beautiful area. People are really friendly and seem to care about each other and the community. I’m excited to explore more in the area with fishing and skiing,” he said.