Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Apr 07/00) - The public meetings may have wrapped up last week but town officials say progress is being made on cleaning up Inuvik.

Tourism and fund-raising co-ordinator, Brian Desjardins, said last Wednesday's public forum will be the last for some time now that a permanent action committee has been formed.

"We tried to break it down so that members of the government, private sector and individual residents are represented," he said. "We basically formed the action committee because it's hard for everyone to meet as a larger groups and because there's been enough discussion and concerns raised and now it's time to get down to business."

The town staged a half-dozen meetings over the past two months and received good public response on developing a co-ordinated clean-up and beautification strategy for Inuvik. Five committees formed to tackle the separate issues of garbage containers, education and communication, beautification projects, fund-raising, and a "gateway" display to welcome visitors.

Desjardins said these committees have been designated subcommittees to the permanent action committee, currently comprised of Dan Smith, Ron Morrison, Peter Clarkson, Marja Van Nieuwenhuyzen, Lyle Neis and Dennis Zimmerman.

"They'll be meeting with their subcommittees and reporting back to the action committee," said Desjardins, "but we want to stress that these are not closed committees and we want to encourage involvement from whoever is interested ... their next meeting is April 11 and it's open to everyone."

Desjardins said participants also addressed the funding question at last Wednesday's meeting. He said each subcommittee must submit a draft budget by Monday so that projected costs can be better estimated and funding sources targeted. He added that the education's subcommittees plans for a town-wide poster contest and awareness campaign has already been given the green light.

"We're going ahead with the Education and Communication Committee because they've already submitted a budget for a couple thousand dollars," he said. "Spring is just around the corner and we want to get the information out and get the kids involved."

Desjardins said Inuvik Works Training and Employment Centre has already set aside a good chunk of its man-hours for the town to use as it sees fit and that organizations like the Justice Committee and Parks Canada will also be donating time and energy. He added the action committee will also apply to Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development to bring in a consultant to help out with long-term planning.