Tourism Radium will be considering the possibility of creating a full-time employment opportunity for an events co-ordinator with financial support from the Village of Radium Hot Springs and voting on the decision shortly, according to manager Kent Kebe.
“A number of years ago… the (Radium) tourism chamber did the Radium events and they went in a different direction at one point with different committees and volunteers,” explained Kebe, noting there was a similar agreement in the past. “We’ve come full circle if the board wants to pursue it.”
At the highly anticipated March 29th board meeting for Tourism Radium, members will be reviewing a possible contract with the Village of Radium Hot Springs to resume the responsibilities of planning Radium Days, Radium Colours and the Headbangers Challenge — an idea that Kebe had pitched to council roughly a month ago and the Village of Radium Hot Springs unanimously accepted at their March 9th council meeting.
The Village of Radium Hot Springs chief administrative officer Mark Read created a contract to encapsulate council’s vision moving forward.
“As part of our Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI) agreement, which looks like it’s going to be approved by the province as of today,” Read told council on March 9th, “we have budgeted for this year and next year to undertake the same three events that we have funded in the past: Radium Days, Radium Colours and the Headbangers festival.
“We’ve had a really hard time finding an event co-ordinator and keeping one,” Mr. Read explained. “I had a discussion with Kent Kebe and he said they’re considering trying to find an individual to run (some events) and he was wondering if we would consider going back to a system where we would provide funding and they would take over our additional events. They might find that, with enough of a position and funding, (they can) make it sustainable for a full-time position.”
He expressed a strong desire to see the Village of Radium Hot Springs accept the offer for help and to attach their expectations for the employee to the reporting requirements in the contract.
At the March 9th council meeting, Coun. Tyler McCauley approved the motion to submit a contract to Tourism Radium for review and Coun. Karen Larsen seconded his decision, which was unanimously agreed upon by their peers.
“It seems like we’ve come full circle, but I really feel like everything that happened in between there really helped us to understand what our needs are and where we’re going,” said Clara Reinhardt, Village of Radium Hot Springs mayor.
Kebe plans to announce the results from Tourism Radium’s board member’s vote at their Annual General Meeting on April 12th, which will be open to the public.