My first community “Coffee Talk” was held on November 26, 2013 at the Creston Valley Bakery. There were 15 attending including Staff Sgt. Gollan, Fire Chief Moore and myself. In the last (almost) six years, I have convened a total of 24 “Coffee Talks” with the most recent one being held at Black Bear Books on August 29th. Over the years, although the coffee and treats have been provided at different locations - Real Food Café, Renee’s Roadhouse, Creston Hotel Banquet Room and Black Bear Books – the agenda (or lack thereof) remains the same … to hear what’s on your mind! All citizens of the Creston Valley are welcome and encouraged to attend. Our most popular meeting saw a total of 23 people in attendance.
I created “Coffee Talks” with the intention of inviting citizens to engage with myself and our community public safety officers in a relaxed and informal setting with the discussion topics driven by the participants. There’s just something about “breaking bread” with others that lends itself to great conversation! The majority of the topics have been about our Town’s operations which are directed to me, but many questions have been directed to our local RCMP detachment, our Creston Fire Rescue staff and our Public Safety Compliance (Bylaw) Officer. We even had two meetings where the Regional manager and his local manager of our Highways (the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure) attended from Nelson.