Sad but happy farewell for Bruderheim CAO

BY JANA SEMENIUK

Both the Town of Bruderheim and its Chief Administrative Officer Patty Podoborozny have been busy with transition preparations this month for Podobozny’s impending departure after serving the town as its CAO, from Strathcona County, for the past eight years.

Podoborozny accepted a CAO position with the County of Minburn effective Feb. 6 and her resignation was announced Jan. 4, meaning she will also be leaving Strathcona County where she was an employee for nearly 30 years.

Podoborzny said she has seen quite a change in Bruderheim from when she first began in 2014, namely in its infrastructure.

“I think the biggest change I've seen is

Council's commitment to infrastructure upgrades. I think about the buildings, (and my first week) Bob cote was the Director of Public Works at that time and he took me for a tour of all the facilities and I (thought), goodness, gracious, they need some upgrades,” she said with a laugh.

“In the old days, we used to make things ourselves but now with legislation you can't unless somebody's a certified electrician or welder to be sure that we're being safe and protecting our liability as a town. So council was amazing at supporting me in that and making sure that we brought everything up, to keep residents and staff safe.”

Podoborozny said she wasted no time looking for grant funding to help with upgrades.

“We started a plan, one building at a time to get them upgraded. They'd been neglected for a number of years and (I was) looking for grants and we were successful in doing that. I (also) think the open parks space has been a big improvement,” she said.

Podobozny added that she is proud of many of the town’s achievements over the years including building a skate park and community gardens through grant funding and donations, seeing over $2 million in renovations to the Karol Maschmeyer Arena in addition to attracting Canadian Rockies Hemp Corporation to town.

“I’m just so excited about us having an AG industry development, it just so fit with our histo- ry. The farming community built Bruderheim and continued to support it. So it's nice that we're bringing AG industry into the community,” she said, including that she is also proud of the Studio 6 sea can hotel and the town’s community clinic.

Meanwhile, Podoborozny said the decision to leave was hard, but necessary to be closer to her family who live in Vegreville.

“(It was) the first time ever that I went for a job interview (for Minburn County), where I wasn’t looking for a change because I love working for Bruderheim and the residents and really felt like I was part of that community. It was really tough, (but) it was an opportunity to work at home and be closer to my family and hopefully give back a little bit to the County of Minburn as well,” she said.

Podoborozny’s last day in Bruderheim will be Feb. 3.

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