City of Powell River Council has voted to increase the pay for Willingdon Beach campsite caretaker services in the hope of attracting suitable candidates.
At the November 7 city council meeting, city chief administrative officer Lisa Bhopalsingh said the recommendation before council was to increase the budget for operations of the campground.
“As council is aware, we have had our caretaker give notice and our one attempt to get a new caretaker resulted in only one proponent, so staff are looking at something that would give a modest increase,” said Bhopalsingh. “We are hoping that with the increase in budget, we can attract an appropriate caretaker for the facility.”
Councillor Cindy Elliott moved a recommendation that council direct staff to amend the City of Powell River five-year financial plan bylaw to include $11,000 in 2024, and $67,596 in years 2025 to 2028, for caretaker services at the campsite.
Elliott said this cost is not expected to transfer to taxation, but rather, lower the amount that is going into the Willingdon Beach reserves.
“This is to make sure we have the budget covered to run the campground,” said Elliott. “The campground does receive revenue as well, and so the revenue that we currently put into reserves will go down in order to increase the amount we are putting towards the caretaker.
“I’m in favour of keeping our campground open and having ideas of how we address that come forward through our budget discussions.”
Council unanimously endorsed the increase in Willingdon Beach caretaker pay.
