One of the top directors within the District of Lake Country is defending the final phase of restructuring within the municipality.
Greg Bucholz, director of infrastructure services, says the recent moves that will see some long time Lake Country employees moving on has been very difficult but says they were business decisions designed to make the operations within Lake Country municipal hall work even better than they have been.
"From my perspective, this is about making the district as efficient as it can be in providing service to the community," said Bucholz. "These are good, dedicated people we are dealing with so it's painful. It's been painful for everyone involved. But we are a very different organization than four and a half years ago when I started. We've evolved. We've become more skilled and as our people gain more experience we can become more efficient and can do the same work with fewer people."
Bucholz says the restructuring that came under fire last week will allow them to do more good work for the community and adds current staffing levels are more than adequate.
"From my team's perspective morale overall is good," he said. "There are people that are feeling sad about the changes and the friendships but the professionalism is showing through and people are getting on with it.
"This is not a major turning everything upside down, we are going about doing our business as we always have done. The reorganization decisions were made by council and I support council in their decision making."
Bucholz admits the transition that is underway with staffing at the District of Lake Country has been hard. He says the people they are losing did excellent work for Lake Country.
"As any organization evolves and changes, nothing should detract from the good work that was done by the people that were here before and unfortunately I think that's what's happened," he said. "These people were very dedicated and their contribution needs to be recognized and valued from the community."