There have been some changes among City of Parksville senior staff recently.
Mike Squire, former manager of operations, was appointed Arrowsmith Water Service program manager, shifting his focus completely to the water issues and new water intake and treatment facility that were taking up an increasing portion of his efforts in recent years.
With Squire leaving the position, the city was able to hire back Alan Metcalf as manager of operations, a job he’d held from 2004 to 2009 before briefly being director of engineering and operations and then leaving in March 2010 for a job in Port Moody.
Metcalf kept his home in Parksville and acting mayor Chris Burger said they were excited to be able to welcome him back into the fold.
“Al’s a very effective manager who people like and he’s able to step right back into that role.”
Burger also pointed out it is great to have Squire still in the fold but able to focus completely on the large AWS projects.
The city has also hired Debbie Comis as director of administrative services, a post that was vacant for two years. Burger said that with the job vacant the city was having to use lawyers more often and the work was spread to other departments, with a lot of the basic housekeeping type stuff, like updating bylaws, not getting done.
Comis has been in similar municipal work for 30 years, most recently in Burnaby and in Mackenzie in northern B.C. for years. She said it’s very nice to be back on the Island where she was born.