The new city manager in Merritt takes over today.

Sean Smith has been appointed to that role after spending nearly three years as the director of corporate services. He takes from Scott Hildebrand, who has moved on to the Thompson-Nicola Regional District and starts there next week.

Smith says there are ongoing concerns with COVID-19, pointing out will likely be further economic impacts.

“I think that you’re going to mostly see this showing up in the 2021 budget, as opposed to amendments to the 2020 budget. If budgets need to be amended, if projects need to be looked at as we move through the rest of the year, that will certainly be done. But I do think 2021 is where you’re going to start to see more of the heavy lifting and real consideration and analysis of the COVID effects,” Smith says.

“It’s been a unique position for municipalities. I think there’s been lots of stories that have been seen on tax collection rates and some of the other fronts. Merritt hasn’t been hit as hard as some other communities, but that’s not to say that those impacts aren’t going to be felt.”

For this year, the City of Merritt actually cut property taxes by 5.74 per cent.

Smith says COVID-19 is still front-of-mind, but points out there’s less to execute on a daily basis.

“So there’s a whole lot of other projects that we’ve got in the works right now. We’ve been fairly ambitious with our planning for the community on a zoning bylaw and the Official Community Plan. Lots happening in development services, and public works is busy with their capital projects. So is recreation.”