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, January 28, Wednesday k Progress
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Exploring innovation in Chilliwack.
Students deal with dead pens.
Wierks winds up record-setting career.
Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D I N 1 8 9 1 • W W W. T H E P R O G R E S S . C O M • W E D N E S D AY, J A N U A R Y 2 8 , 2 0 1 5
Retaining court services a priority for Chilliwack, says mayor Jennifer Feinberg The Progress
Continued: CASE/ p5
There are several vacant buildings in downtown Chilliwack, including this one at Five Corners. Last year Chilliwack Economic Partners brought on Walas Concepts to help spur new ideas on downtown revitalization. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Chilliwack ends its relationship with Walas Jennifer Feinberg The Progress Everyone says you’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em, and especially when to walk away. Chilliwack is walking away from Walas Concepts. There was great hope and optimism expressed when Walas Concepts was hired last spring to breathe new life into downtown revitalization. The consulting firm created a plan based on a “business incubator” being set up in the downtown core to cut the number of vacant, and boarded-up storefronts with a surge of entrepreneurs.
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The total spent before the Walas contract ended was about $65,000, with Walas staff having conducted research, and an inventory of unused buildings, as ground work for the incubator concept. But after a six-month review of the contract between Walas and Chilliwack Economic Partners Corporation, the relationship between Walas and Chilliwack was terminated. The decision last month by the CEPCO board was based on fiscal prudence. “Sometimes we have to step off the traditional path and Walas was brought in to Chilliwack, based on the successes they had elsewhere in revitalizing large
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downtown spaces in other parts of world,” said CEPCO president Brian Coombes. “We looked at their six-month report findings and recommendations and felt their vision for proceeding did not justify the investment required from us, and we needed to make the decision to end the contract at this stage.” City of Chilliwack and CEPCO had partnered on the project, which had an annual budget of $195,000 over the three years. “We felt at this time we could no longer justify the monthly investment,” said Coombes. The last day for Walas staff was on Jan. 16. There were however “positive
contributions” to come out of the experience, including an updated downtown inventory and an analysis of the downtown plans commissioned to date. “It was made very clear people still have tremendous passion and emotional connections to the downtown. There are a lot of good people trying to make the downtown better.” In the end there weren’t enough vacant buildings, which the entire plan was based on. Mayor Sharon Gaetz said the contract was drafted with the condition built in that it could be ended at six-month intervals, if necessary. Continued: WALAS/ p4
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City of Chilliwack will continue lobbying to keep Supreme Court services in Chilliwack, despite a year-old recommendation to make Abbotsford the regional centre for upper court services in the Lower Fraser Valley. The report, released in Februar y of 2014, called for a dramatic increase in courtroom capacity for both provincial and supreme courts over the Sharon Gaetz next 20 years. Construction of a new $62 million court facility in Abbotsford with five Supreme Court courtrooms is the centrepiece of the plan. Chilliwack, meanwhile, could see expanded provincial court services, with the consultant’s report calling for two more courtrooms to be built by 2028. “A Supreme Court presence will be retained in Chilliwack,” the report pledges. But that scenario, part of the “Court Capacity Expansion Project” released by the province, has some in Chilliwack fearing the city may be about to lose its historic role as a Supreme Court centre. “We will do everything in our power to keep it,” said Mayor Sharon Gaetz. “It’s is a topic that is near and dear to our hearts in Chilliwack.” Significant numbers of court professionals and legal services are now established in Chilliwack,