Her first day on the job with the Town of Black Diamond had Joanne Irwin realizing things could get pretty interesting.
Following a heavy snowfall the night before, Irwin found herself fielding calls from residents complaining about the Town’s snow removal service, pulling her in different directions in just the first few hours of her job.
“The first phone call I took was somebody demanding to know why the streets weren’t cleared yet because they had an appointment to get to,” said Irwin. “The next call a person was complaining that we were clearing the streets and that’s not a good use of tax dollars. I went home that day and said to my husband, ‘This is going to be a really interesting job and I really look forward to navigating through it all.’”
After 16 years of challenges and triumphs with the Town, Irwin, Black Diamond’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) is leaving her post. Her last day at the office is May 20.
“It was an exciting opportunity for me,” said Irwin. “I’ve developed a lot of very close relationships with a lot of people that I respect very deeply. I will be leaving behind some very valued people.”
Irwin was hired by the Town in January 2000 as assistant to then CAO Dianne Kreh. Irwin was appointed as the interim CAO when Kreh became ill eight years later and took up the position permanently after Kreh passed away later that year.
Before joining the Town, Irwin worked as a regional lending office and executive loans manager for a chartered bank for 22 years in Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Calgary.
She delved into her job with the Town, handling finances, writing policies and working closely with the town’s departments and council.
“Over the years I’ve made a lot of changes,” she said. “One of the really important things that I’m proud of is the fact that we all work as a team. I’ve been so blessed to have a dedicated team and to build that team and to see them function as they do.”
While the job had its challenges, the largest one came during the 2013 flood.
The night before, Irwin spent several hours with town council planning for a potential emergency and arrived home just before midnight. By 3 a.m. she noticed the Sheep River was a foot from the top of the campground cookhouse and called the fire department to evacuate the campers.
Under her leadership, the Town acted quickly to prevent damage to several homes and connected a four-inch high volume fire hose to a fire hydrant at the Turner Valley Golf Club with one in Willow Ridge to keep the town’s water system going after Black Diamond’s water treatment plant was washed away.
“When the flood hit it threw our capital planning into a tailspin because there were so many more things we had to consider,” said Irwin. “We turned what was a horrible situation into something that now we share a regional water treatment facility.”
Les Quinton, parks and recreation manager, said Irwin has made a big impact on the town.
“She has been an excellent CAO, very easy to communicate with and we will be very sorry to see her leave,” he said. “She has done an excellent job of what she was doing. She made my job much easier.”
Quinton said he Irwin supported various initiatives he proposed over the years and has created a strong team.
“Out of all the different places I have worked, the Town of Black Diamond is the best run operation and the CAO and council are a huge part of that,” he said. “All of the things I saw her do and manage and take on she did an amazing job. It’s going to be sad to see her leave. She’s be an excellent boss and she’s done her job exceedingly well.”
Coun. Mike Ross said he admires Irwin for her knowledge in municipal policies and considers her a mentor.
“Anytime I had questions about how things should work I could always talk to her and she would always give me good advice,” he said. “She walked us through how to do budgets and how to take all the information into consideration. She kept that place just running like a top.”
Black Diamond Mayor Sharlene Brown said Irwin played an integral role in implementing changes as the CAO, including putting the Town’s day-to-day operational procedures in writing.
“Over the years we have taken on that task to ensure policies and procedures have been created so that when the time came they were not institutionalized, we have formalized in writing, an overwhelming task, some of which eight years later we are still working on,” she said.
Brown said Irwin has been a strong leader.
“The value that Joanne has contributed to providing leadership, mentorship and empathy establishing a team of staff has been recognizing that each person has something to contribute to the organization,” she said. “We will all miss Joanne, her contributions to our community and we wish to thank her with all of our hearts for her service.”
The Town of Black Diamond is advertising the position on the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association website.
