A fundraising committee has been appointed for the multi-use centre after a brief meeting on Wednesday, November 12th.

“We’re going to try and keep within budget to build it to a nice level, but to do anything above and beyond that is where the fundraising committee comes in,” said Invermere mayor Gerry Taft.

Jim Bonny and Dee Conklin have been appointed as the two public members of the committee, and will be joined by two elected officials and representatives from both the library and performing arts consortium.

“The fundraising efforts are for the ‘nice to haves’ for lack of better term,” Taft said. “They’ll add extra features to the main hall, which will make it successful for performing arts, and take it from a nice building to an excellent building.”

Although Al Miller has replaced Spring Hawes on the District of Invermere council, the new council (who will be appointed to the committee) has not been sworn in yet, so the previous council will come together for one final committee meeting on Monday, November 25th.

“In previous times with the mayor-elect or councillor-elect, they’ve been elected, but not yet sworn in, so there’s that brief two-week period, which can be a little bit weird.”

But with only one new face on Invermere council (Miller was a councillor from 2008 to 2011), Taft isn’t worried about the new team changing course.

“I don’t see any drastic changes coming,” he said. “We’re focused on trying to get this build/construction started by next fall, so it’s a pretty tight timeline. (We’re) not going to reopen the whole thing from square one.”

The first phase of the project is expected to be completed before the 2018 municipal election. Taft said phase two could pose as an election issue in four years from now, but a referendum to borrow money for the library could come even sooner.