It hasn’t taken long for Lonny Miller to jump right into the thick of things with the Village of Valemount. The recently hired interim Chief Administrative Officer has several things on his list to work on before a permanent CAO is hired in the new year.

Starting work with the village on Nov. 9, Miller says it’s not hard to jump right into projects, even though he knows he will only be in the community temporarily.

Miller says he likes the work, which is slightly different with each municipality. But the people are always eager to keep things going and one soon learns the dynamics of everything.

One of the projects Miller will be working on is the water treatment plan, which he says is an important one. While he doesn’t have the technical training background in water systems, he has the administrative background and contract solutions.

“It’s (project) contract’s in and we’ve been working with the contractor and engineers, just to monitor and keep things going,” Miller says. “So I’m working hard on that. Also the CAO recruitment, I’ll be assisting council with that, following up on a few leases and things and contracts in the works. The downtown revitalization was a major project. It’s 85 per cent complete. It will just need to be wrapped up. There’s a lot of paperwork to do, then they’ll be back in the spring to do the landscaping. So those are my bigger jobs.”

Miller will help the counsel and staff  find a new CAO, but when it comes to the final decisions, they will be exclusively up to council. Miller will help coordinate interviews and assist in the logistics of it, including preparing the short list out of nine applicants hopefully by next week.

The position closed last Friday (Nov. 20), and interviews start next week to create the short list.

“Typically it takes four to six weeks by the time the interview and the offer (is made). Maybe two months (after the short list has been made). We’re shooting for Feb. 1,” Miller says.

This is Miller’s fourth temporary position with a municipality since retiring in Tumbler Ridge after 23 years. He worked in Prince Rupert, Spirit River and High Prairie prior to coming to Valemount, which is the first place that his wife wasn’t able to come along with him. Usually the contracts are for three or four months and then they head home. Miller’s wife often helps volunteer in the community and is quite involved, but unfortunately, he says, he came alone this time because she’s working full time, but he’ll be taking two weeks off at Christmas.

Miller says he doesn’t have a problem with being in town for such a short period of time. “They value my input, which is also very important. So no, I don’t have a problem with it. Quite often I need to do some extra work on my part to bring myself up to speed with issues and concerns.”

After Miller’s stint in Valemount, he thinks he’ll take a month off to visit his daughter who is currently living in New Zealand.