The City of Revelstoke is losing another senior manager, with news that Dean Strachan is leaving to take a position in another community.
Strachan, the city's manager of development services, told the Review he is stepping down from his post at the end of this year.
"I have a new opportunity," he said, without revealing where he is going. "It's a good opportunity and a good chance to do work in another community."
Strachan was hired by the city in November 2013, when the city restructured and combined the engineering and planning department into a new Department of Engineering & Development Services. The move was designed to streamline development processing.
Strachan had a heavy workload the last two years, with the election of a development-friendly council, economic rebound and growth in tourism contributing to a steady stream of projects coming into the city. Amongst the major files he handled were the highway shopping mall, Mackenzie Village, the treehouse hotel and Mountain View Elementary revitalization.
He also introduced controversial zoning regulations governing vacation rentals and started work on updating the city's zoning bylaw.
"It's sad to see Dean going especially in light of how much activity we've got going on and how much we've been through," said Mayor Mark McKee. "I can understand he wants to be closer to home and in that regard I'm happy for him, but I'm not that happy."
McKee said the city has begun the process to hire his replacement and will be advertising the job opening shortly. In the meantime, his workload will be divided amongst other city hall staff.
Strachan is the third senior staffer to announced his departure this year. Graham Inglis retired as the city's director of finance and Alan Mason is retiring as the city's director of economic development at the end of February.
None of the positions have been filled yet.