Jasper municipal council has now approved a total of 12 positions to support the town’s recovery following the disastrous summer wildfire.
Four of these positions were approved during a regular meeting on Tuesday (Sept. 24) and include two recovery outreach workers on a two-year term to assist Community Outreach Services (COS).
“Since reopening after the fire on Sept. 9, outreach has seen a massive increase in the number of new clients as well as the number of existing clients reaching out for support,” said Christopher Read, the municipality’s director of community development.
In a typical month pre-wildfire, outreach would get roughly 125 clients, eight of whom would be new clients. This breaks down to 30 clients per week with two new clients. Between Sept. 9 and 15, however, outreach had 224 clients, 88 of whom …