The Community Safety and Wellbeing Committee in Kenora has a special guest visiting the city.

Steve Woolrich specializes in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design or CPTED.

He says he’ll be spending three months in the city and make recommendations to hopefully make Kenora safer.

“A great opportunity to embed myself within the community…it won’t be a rushed process…it will be a very comprehensive process,” Woolrich said after his presentation to city council on Tuesday.

“It encompasses the three primary areas of the downtown.  We’ll be looking at using Crime Prevention through Environment Design, which is a best practice.”

He adds that he was pleasantly surprised and pleased by community feedback in a recent Community Safety and Wellbeing survey.

“The number of respondents was incredible.  You typically just don’t see that.  You know to have over 1,000 respondents, and a lot of those results were very positive.  87 percent of the community said they’re more than willing to roll up their sleeves and help out, so that’s fantastic.”

Woolrich’s contract originally called for him to start on May 1st, but he said he arrived several days earlier to get a feel for the city.

One of his jobs is to complete a report for the Community Safety and Wellbeing Committee and to city council before he leaves.