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Fort St. James gets a new CAO

Melany Helmer comes with years of senior management experience
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Fort St. James municipal office. (File photo)

Fort St. James has a new Chief Administrative Officer and she has several years of experience working as an administrative officer for other communities.

Melany Helmer previously served as the CAO for the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako. She said she had applied to come to the Fort as the CAO some years ago but it didn’t work out at the time.

“We own property north of the Fort and we have always wanted to be in this geographic area… So when this position came up - really I love the work I was doing at the regional district - but this location is where my family wanted to be. So when the CAO opportunity came up, I said you know what, let’s do this,” said Helmer.

Before Helmer worked as the CAO for RDBN, she held the position of Chief Financial Officer and deputy CAO with the District of Taylor up in Fort St. John from 2010 to 2015. And from 2015 to 2016 she was the CAO for the Village of Cache Creek.

READ MORE: Regional district appoints new CAO

At RDBN, she said she undertook two major projects that had significance. The first one was the 2018 summer wildfires. During this time, Helmer said she was the director of the Emergency Operations Centre.

“We had many fires all across the regional district. It was a very challenging time for many people and I was happy to be able to be there to do whatever I could to help the people impacted by the wildfires,” she said.

The other project she undertook was the regional transit service along Highway 16 from Burns Lake to Prince George and Burns Lake to Smithers return, Helmer added. She worked with the RDBN board to get the regional transit system up and running and implemented it. She said she received a lot of positive feedback for this.

“The only criticism people have had about that service is that they want more of it,” Helmer added.

Meanwhile, she said she loves the work involved in being the administrative officer.

“It is very public service oriented. We are here to meet the needs of the public and working with the public officials to try find ways to improve things for the communities so I am hoping I am able to work with the new mayor and council here to identify areas that most need attention and help the community become a better place for everyone,” Helmer said.

Now working with Fort St. James she said there are quite a few things she would like to work on.

“I think really an important thing is that council did just adopt a strategic plan and are looking at prioritizing projects and moving forward based on that.”

“And one other thing is that we are waiting anxiously for the outcome of is the portion of the Northern Infrastructure and Planning Grant that the province has recently announced and how that will enable us to work on supporting needs of the communities and prioritizing. Not just prioritizing though but also to move them forward,” Helmer said.

Outside work, she said her family enjoys the outdoors. They like to go fishing, camping and said she is in the right location for all this activities.

“We are looking forward to having very easy access to the natural environment,” she said.


Aman Parhar
Editor, Vanderhoof Omineca Express

aman.parhar@ominecaexpress.com

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