This has been an incredibly difficult week for all of us. There are no words that will adequately convey our sorrow. On October 17 we lost two key members of our team, and our community.

Today we remember Wayne Hornquist and Lloyd Smith.

Wayne was born and raised in Fernie and started in July of 1992 working with crews taking care of our city parks. Soon after, he moved into a position at the Fernie Arena where he became Chief Facilities Operator.

He had a reputation as someone who gave his all to his job and was well respected by his entire crew.  When he wasn’t busy making sure things were running smoothly at the Arena—he could be seen proudly watching his daughters figure skating.

He claimed to be the best Zamboni driver around—because he could finish the rink using one less lap than everyone else.

When he wasn’t at the rink or proudly maintaining favourite community trails – Wayne was a family man. He loved spending time in the garden with his wife or walking through the park in Parkland Terrace, hiking with his daughters and instilling his love of the outdoors and adventure in them.

And he loved to build—everything from intricate boxes, and frames for his daughter’s degrees, to the display cases at the arena and his family home.

This past summer Wayne received his 25-years-of-service award.

His daughters say that “he was our guy for everything” and that truly sums up Wayne’s contributions to our city over the past 25 years. He was one of our go-to people and he will be sorely missed.

Lloyd Smith started with the City of Fernie as the Director of Leisure Services in 2015, and in his two years here made a profound impact on our community.

He brought with him a strong passion for project management and environmental and social sustainability.

Lloyd was a mentor to his staff, facilitator for our community’s many user groups and was extremely proud of his staff and the various organizations he got to be a part of.

Lloyd was always extremely committed to his job and to moving the city forward.  Two of his favourite projects were working to make Canada 150 a huge success and the recent plans to redevelop Station Square.

Lloyd loved adventure and passed that passion along to his son.  He was always up for something new, and eager to learn and grow.

His family has described him as ‘a giant rolling stone that picked up everything along its way.’ He was a pilot, a paramedic, a two-time iron man finisher and even owned a sailboat for a time. He was truly one-of-a-kind.

City of Fernie

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