The Village of Telkwa council was all smiles last week with the announcement judges from the 2012 Liveable Community (LivCom) Awards recognized Telkwa with a silver for their Community Sustainability and Resiliency plan.
The award stems from the 2012 Liveable Community (LivCom) Awards competition held in AlAin in the United Arab Emirates last November.
Telkwa was one of about 80 projects selected from 400 applications to attend the LivCom Awards event.
“This little village was recognized on the world stage, that’s quite something,” Graf said.
Councillors Rimas Zitkauskas and Rick Fuerst along with Telkwa Chief Administrative Officer, Kim Martinsen, attend the LivCom conference where they presented a short video highlighting the uniqueness of Telkwa.
Also preoccupying last week’s council meeting was the ongoing debate over the size and location of the current cenotaph adjacent to the Senior’s Centre in Telkwa.
Councillor Fuerst was approached by a veteran of the Korean War, residing in Telkwa, asking if the cenotaph could be made more substantial because he felt Telkwa-area veterans deserved a more substantial cenotaph.
The Seniors Society was approached and their initial reaction to the project was not positive.
“Mainly because they didn’t want to diminish or disrespect the efforts of Ben Klick,” Fuerst explained.
Klick is a local veteran who spearheaded a group of veterans in the construction of the current cenotaph.
Discussions with the Klick family revealed the elder Klick didn’t object to upgrading and moving the cenotaph so long as the accompanying memorial bench was moved as well.
The Seniors Society considered the Klick family’s wishes and voted in favour of plans for the cenotaph.
However just a few short days later the Seniors Society sent a letter to Telkwa council advising they had reconsidered their earlier decision to support the moving and upgrading of the cenotaph.
“I’m at a bit of a loss to explain the push back,” Fuerst said.
“I’m disappointed.”
Fuerst said he will meet with the seniors one more time to see if the situation can be resolved.