Invermere council approved a bevy of special events at its most recent council meeting, including the Tim Goldie celebration of life.

Tim’s brother Craig was at the Tuesday, May 10^th meeting and told council “Tim didn’t want a funeral, we wanted a celebration of life and street party.”

Craig went on to outline that event organizers are seeking to use the Invermere Community Hall, its parking lot and to have 8^th Avenue between Peppi’s Pizzeria (which Tim owned) and the hall closed on Saturday June 11^th, and that the street party would involved some great music from live bands, food from Peppi’s, oysters, beer, bouncy tents and face painting for kids, plenty of story telling and fireworks.

“We’ll probably apply to have the noise bylaw relaxed that night, even though will still try to comply with it,” said Craig, adding the idea is for people to enjoy the live music, food and festivities starting at 5 p.m., then leave at 10:30 p.m. to head down to the inukshuk behind the arena to watch the fireworks (as Invermere residents typically do on Canada Day), then head back to the community hall, at which point organizers will encourage participants to head into the hall. The organizers will clean everything up on the morning of Sunday, June 12^th.

Craig had approached all the businesses along 8^th Avenue, all of which had given him letters of support for the event.

Council members unanimously approved a motion to relax the noise bylaw on June 11^th.

During the May 10^th meeting council also approved the Calgary Sports Car Club’s Rocky Mountain Rally from Friday, June 3^rd to Sunday, June 5^th, although the matter did generate some discussion.

Invermere mayor Gerry Taft pointed out that the event typically takes up much of the parking lot stretching from 6^th Avenue to the back side of the arena, and that in the past when the event was held in November it had generated concern among local business owners about the considerable amount of downtown Invermere’s limited parking space that it takes up. Taft said given that those complaints had been voiced in the low-tourist season of November, it seems possible business owners might be even more upset to lose that parking space for potential customers during a weekend that is likely to be far busier with tourists. He added that the car show being held in June this year instead of November may also mean it’s much bigger this year and will consequently take up more space than normal.

Councillor Al Miller said he’d thought of the potential for just that concern and had walked around the area talking to all the businesses and “all were supportive of the event being held in the back parking lot.”

The only potential problem would be if a delivery truck was trying to back up to the back side of one of the businesses (such as the liquor store, for instance) to make a delivery while the car rally was going on, but Miller said he’s sure the district can work with both the car club and businesses to ensure delivery trucks can get in, if needed, during that weekend.

Council approved the event, with four councillors voting in favour of it, and Taft opposed.