Cariboo Regional District Area D director Deb Bischoff said she won’t be seeking re-election in 2014.
By 2014 she will have completed six years of serving and said she thinks it will be the right time for new blood.
“If I can’t get what I need done in six years then I think it’s time for someone else to step in.”
During the CRD Board on the Road barbecue held at the Wildwood fire hall Thursday, Bischoff recalled it was a historical store fire that was the impetus for the Wildwood fire department 25 years ago.
Resident Wendel Schachtel said the CRD helped financially, the department secured some used equipment from the coast, and they got started.
“We were all standing here training, 21 guys, all with this colour of hair,” Schachtel said pulling at his grey hair. “There’s something wrong here we said, and then young people started showing up and we stepped aside and let them do it.”
Under her stint as director, Bischoff has seen the fire hall get new doors, new extensions, new fire trucks and a ride-on lawn mower.
“Then the volunteers,” she added. “You look up and see the new venting system and think it’s not a big deal, but it’s all done by volunteers.”
Schactel volunteered all the plumbing, he added.
McLeese Lake, also in her directorship area, has also seen some improvements.
The community hall has been upgraded with french doors, and windows.
“You can look right out onto the lake now,” Bischoff said.
They replaced their ball diamond with new bleachers and redid the gymkhana grounds.
“Forglen Road boat launch,” she exclaimed. “It took two and a half years for the Ministry of Dirt to allow us to put in the cement panels in the water.”
The original boat launch directly off the highway is going to be left open for people with canoes or kayaks on their vehicles, but the main boat launch will be the new one.
“It’s fabulous,” she said.
At Wildwood a community kitchen was installed in the school and the vacant property adjacent to the fire hall is slated for a training centre.
“When the board approves the budget and gives the OK for the budget for the Wildwood volunteer fire department to hire a consultant to work with fire chief Randy Worsley to build and plan a training centre,” Bischoff said.