Lytton rebuild starting to take shape five years after devastating fire

“It certainly has. We’ve been holding Monday coffee rain or shine, doesn’t matter if it’s a holiday or not at the Parish Hall, and we hear from people… it provides some structure and it provides a place to connect,” said O’Connor.

“Every day, it’s getting closer. We still lack those places to gather so any kind of event or anything that is happening, everybody takes full advantage of it to gather,” added O’Connor.

Twenty homes have been rebuilt in Lytton, with upward of 75 people returning home.

“Five years later, the first two years we were still under a state of local emergency, so nothing was happening,” clarified O’Connor.

“Since we took the state of local emergency off two years in and I look what we’ve done for the last three years and a bit, I think our progress has been incredible,” the mayor told CFJC News.

“In that time, we’ve had 20 homes rebuilt here, we have a public works building rebuilt, we’ve had the Chinese museum as the first business to rebuild, we are starting the village office.”

Big projects are quickly coming on stream, including a nearly complete Royal Canadian Legion and a grant-funded community hub still in design.

“We have this whole space now to build the hub, to rebuild the pool and that is through federal money through a grant,” said O’Connor.

The hub could also include a library, museum and community spaces.

“I believe we are doing the best we can and have moved a lot of things forward,” said O’Connor.

With her term coming to an end, O’Connor is unsure about another four years as mayor, but said seeing major projects across the finish line would be a draw to stay.

“It’s been home for 35 years, this particular lot. And it’s still home.”

by Michael Reeve

Lytton rebuild starting to take shape five years after devastating fire

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