COMMUNITY: Helen Sullivan Memorial Walkathon
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Irrigation Lake dam building By Jackie Lieuwen Houston Today
FALL Harvest
Irrigation Lake stakeholders are calling for volunteers to come together to help build a new dam next week. With government approval and a construction permit granted Sept. 11, stakeholders are pushing for construction Sept. 29 to Oct. 3. The old dam on the south end of Irrigation Lake was deemed a “potential safety hazard” by the Provincial Government in June 2013. They demanded that stakeholders bring the dam up to safety standards and find someone to take on the water licence, or else the dam would be torn out. Stakeholders took action and in July 2013, with a $10,000 grant from the Bulkley Valley Credit Union, they hired an engineer
Jackie Lieuwen/Houston Today
The participants of the Houston Community Garden harvested their fresh produce and garden vegetables last Thursday. They also enjoyed a final harvest barbecue. Above L - R are William, Rozalin and Ryder helping Mel Anderson and Jaime Yeomans dig up potatoes. See page 9 for more photos.
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Volunteers needed for construction starting next Monday.
to develop a design, which was completed last June. The active stakeholders are Rough Acres Bible Camp, Rock Nest Ranch and Bells and Spooners (neighbours on the lake), as well as Ken Thomson and Steve Page. Rough Acres Bible Camp and Rock Nest Ranch are working to each get a conservation water licence and share the responsibility and liability for the Irrigation Lake dam, said Wendall Garrison, Rock Nest Director. See LAKE on Page 2
HFP closure drives Houston labour market strategy By Jackie Lieuwen Houston Today
Two consultants are developing a Houston strategy to address the labour market challenges. Still in the formative stages, the Labour Market Strategy (LMS) has one guiding
question: How can one close the gap between the labour force needed in Houston and the region, and the labour force that currently exists? Consultants Andrea Newell and Pat Hufnagel-Smith were hired in March for the LMS project,
and presented the draft to council last week Tuesday. The strategy was based on research done by the consultants, including information from the Regional District Skills Gap Analysis, the Houston Community Profile and the Northwest
Workforce Table. More notably, it also included interviews with the major employers in Houston as well as local service providers like Work BC and NWCC. After research, the LMS consultants met with nine key stakeholders for a
HA P P Y
LMS session, where they presented their research and let stakeholders decide on the priorities. Newell said the local employers confirmed that a gap does exist between the labour force that exists now and what they want to hire.
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“It wasn’t just trades, it was also managers and anything that required higher post secondary education, like social work,” Newell said. Some principles guiding the LMS development included (1) building on things already happening,
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