PROFILE: Gary Smith Grand Forks City Council

 

 In the nearly eight years I have lived in Grand Forks (seven of them at my current address in the city) I have involved myself in numerous aspects of community life.  Aside from starting my own business, I have worked on the Art Gallery Board, the Boundary Air Quality Committee, the Boundary Musical & Theatre Society, the River's Edge Theatre Society, and I have been a Volunteer Firefighter/First Responder for more than five years.  

 

Grand Forks is my home and I will continue to apply my passion, energy and persevering spirit to its prosperity. That Grand Forks has allowed me to experience what a small town can offer and being grateful to have participated in so many ways I would feel privileged to serve Grand Forks as a councillor.

 

 

I believe I have a very diverse background both in work experience and life experience.  I feel the skills, abilities and education that I have gathered over the years will lend well to addressing and working through the challenges our community faces, as well as improving upon those initiatives and programs that have already worked well for us.

 

3. What do you think are the top three challenges facing the city in the upcoming term?

The incoming Council needs to action-plan and follow through on recommendations made by volunteer committees and paid consultants.  The Community Sustainability Plan and the Heritage Program are two well-researched and well-conceived documents that we can use to our benefit.  

 

Council will need to show leadership in both launching and supporting initiatives focussed on building and sustaining prosperity.  Ultimately, we need to move our vision of the future out of the realm of ideas and make it real.

 

As we develop and enhance our community's personality we also need to find ways to showcase it.  Other communities have had remarkable success in distinguishing themselves: Rossland and Osoyoos are success stories right next door.  Perhaps our future harvest will be a model that has evolved from seeds planted in our past (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDOiIYzRFbQ).  Regardless, we will need to market ourselves locally, nationally, and internationally.

 

Have a look at any dictionary for the definition of a pest.  One would be hard pressed not to include deer, such as they affect our community, under that definition.  We pay higher vehicle insurance rates, our properties are starting to look like prisons and the safety of our children and pets are increasingly at risk by fearless does and bucks.  In my business I have had countless calls to deal with raccoons and skunks.  However, their collective impact is minuscule in comparison to that of our deer population.  

 

 

I like a good plan and I like to get it done.  There is so much energy in this community waiting to unleash itself toward positive outcomes.  I would like to help focus, amplify and direct that energy in order to achieve the goals we have conceived.

 

As a businessman and entertainer, I am not shy about letting others know who I am or what I am about.  As a councillor, I will be a champion for the interests of our community.  I have an eye for good marketing, an imagination for creating something unique, and a mind for making it happen.

 

A prevailing tenet of integrated pest management, a profession I have practised for nearly eight years, is the use of solutions that have the least environmental impact.  In tandem with a more reliable method of tracking and counting populations I believe a deer cull is necessary to preserving a lifestyle conducive to human activity. At the same time it will limit the inevitable injury and suffering to deer that otherwise occurs from incidents with vehicles.  Any resident who has been here longer than a year should know what I mean.

 

 

Cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am) – I figured I wouldn’t get away with tall, dark and handsome, LOL.

 

 

I can be reached at 250.443.1256 or at bugsyblues@gmail.com.  I will return all calls and emails as quickly as I can and would be happy to share a coffee and conversation with whomever can spare a half-an-hour when I can schedule.  I'm flexible.  I look forward to the all-candidate's meeting on November 9 at the GFSS for some serious drillin' and grillin'.