The Village of Cumberland is looking for some new faces to help preserve its heritage.
At meetings in July, council moved ahead with repealing the Heritage Advisory Commission and instead establishing a body as one of its select committees.
At the July 8 meeting, council gave first, second and third reading to the Heritage Commission Repeal Bylaw to repeal it and adopt an amended policy 1.6 Heritage Committee Terms of Reference, which requires amending the terms of reference. As well, the resolution included appointing current Heritage Commission members Paul Laronde, Meaghan Cursons and Coun. Gwyn Sproule to the new committee, as well as advertising for more members to the committee. Council passed the resolutions at the July 22 meeting.
The move came out of a decision from last November for the Village to review council committees and commissions.
At the July 8 council meeting, senior planner Karin Albert outlined the proposed changes, saying they would alter the duration of terms for committee members to coincide with council elections. A new council would then have the chance to appoint new members.
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Albert said commissions under the Province’s Community Charter are generally bodies that own and operate property on behalf of local government.
“Looking at this, it just felt that a select committee would be a better fit,” she told council.
The committee’s scope of work will largely be the same, with one change. Its terms of reference will switch from referring to the development of a heritage management plan to now cite the implementation of the Village’s heritage management plan, including the development of statements of significance for historic sites and building in Cumberland.
Ultimately, the Village wants to set up the committee to include a maximum of 11 members. This is one fewer than the maximum for the commission because the Village wants to have an uneven number of members for voting purposes.
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The report to council also included a highlight of the current heritage work plan for 2019, as set out at a meeting in February. This includes developing statements of significance for sites such as Coal Beach and the #4 Mine Site, Little Jerusalem, Perseverance Creek and the Big Store. Another item was the grand opening of the No. 1 Japanese Town Interpretive Trail in Coal Creek Historic Park in June.