A nice-sized crowd of well-wishers attended at brief ceremony on Friday morning to see 312 Street between Maryville and Kimberley officially renamed Jim Ogilvie Way.
“It’s great to see such a wonderful turnout and it’s my privilege as mayor to honour Jim Ogilvie,” said Mayor Ron McRae.
McRae spoke briefly on Mayor Jim’s significance to Kimberley and then turned the mike over to the man himself.
“I am really pleased to be here and see so many folks show up,” Ogilvie said. “It’s ironic that when I first started on Council in 1965, one of my first jobs was working on paving the Marysville Highway.”
Ogilvie recounted being elected and then told by the council of the day that voters would never approve the spending of money to pave the road.
“People won’t stand for it, they said. I packed a petition around town myself and got all the residents to sign it and agree to pay extra to pave the road.
“Ever since that day I’ve been wrestling with pavement. Now it’s Ron’s job.”
Ogilvie said that through the years Kimberley Council did a lot of things that other towns didn’t have to do. It wasn’t thinking out of the box, he said, so much as taking advantage of opportunities to do things that needed to be done.
“That’s why we expanded golf courses and saved the ski resort. I see all kinds of people here today who stood by us through all those projects.
“Those projects were well thought out, they had a good solid basis. We knew what we were doing. We knew exactly how much we should pay for that resort and still make money. I negotiated with the bankers for six months. Finally they said, ‘you’re not going to move are you?’.”
Ogilvie said he was proud to have contributed to Kimberley’s growth.
“Our community will be here forever and I get a nice road named after me.”
Mayor McRae also presented flowers to Gail Ogilvie.
“All through those many years, my wife was there,” Mayor Jim said. “She put the proper clothes on me, colour coordinated me, made sure I got a haircut and did all the things that made me presentable to the community.”