Business View Civil Municipal - Sept 2023

116 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 9 standpoint and a population one as well. It’s difficult to be sure that we’re fiscally responsible and yet provide services for our residents today, as well as planning for tomorrow. To this end, we invest in our infrastructure, our businesses, and recreation services. It’s hard to make everyone happy, but we do our best by keeping an eye on the present, as well as the future.” Coming through the other side of the pandemic Kaker notes that carrying on in the face of government-mandated pandemic restrictions only served to make Suamico stronger and even more of a close-knit community. “COVID forced us to re-imagine certain areas in our village, in terms of how our commercial spaces would be maximized,” he opines. “A good example of this is the Urban Edge development. Recently, a former department store that was more than 80,000 square feet was repurposed into indoor storage units and a child- Photo: Crystal Hladilek