With funding and equipment at work, Lytton aims for site remediation by September

LYTTON, B.C. — It’s been a whirlwind of emergencies, evacuations and disaster response for the people of Lytton. But this week, the village was able to give residents more positive news that cleanup is underway.

“With the recent announcement on funding, a lot of the issues that delayed the rebuild have been settled,” says Mayor Jan Polderman.

The village spent the months leading up living through the rest of wildfire season, waiting on toxicology reports, sifting through damage, dealing with washed out roads and a heavy snow-dump. But now, funding and manpower is in place and the clearing work can be done.

“At this point, we are confident that we are going to meet the timeline set out by the mayor to have the community remediated by September,” notes Recovery Project Manager James Heigh. According to Heigh, municipal properties are first to be cleared as there is no permission required to begin work on those sites and permission is being collected from residents for crews to work on private properties.

The plan is to use a little more than $18 million in provincial funding announced this week to cover the cost of debris removal, archaeological work and remediation for properties in Lytton. The mayor reiterates that this does include coverage for uninsured or under-insured properties.

“The residents that have no insurance, their properties will be remediated. And their heritage permitting costs will be picked up by the province.”

When the village is eventually rebuilt, Polderman says fuel management in the area will be enhanced to improve fire resiliency and there will be updates made to building bylaws.

“I guess the biggest change in that bylaw will be that the immediate five feet around your house will be free of vegetation,” explains Polderman, “so that when a fire happens your shrubs and trees and that don’t catch fire and burn your house down.”

Residents are still displaced and much has been lost, but seeing shovels in the ground has Lytton looking toward September with hope.

“You know, it’s been one setback after another. It’s not really been anyone’s fault or anything like that, it’s just been the way it is,” says Polderman. “And I”m really looking forward to people coming back and re-establishing their life here.”