With an extremely tight election over, the newly elected Village of Clyde councillors are gearing up to meet the requirements laid out in the provincially-mandated viability review and to ensure the village is well represented in regional collaboration talks.
Incumbent Matthew White was the leading vote getter Oct. 16 with 82 and after him, the difference between victory and defeat was decided by as few as two ballots.
Of the remaining four, Doug Nyal came out ahead with 63 votes, followed by Christa Clausing and Nat Dvernichuk who were tied at 60 apiece. Newcomer Allan VanEaton was the cut off at 56 votes.
Stu Lorencz, who previously sat on council from 2007 to 2010, received 54 votes while Rose Strubel finished with 52.
Nyal said he was is happy with the amount of interest the election generated this year.
“Thank you to all the candidates who put their name in to run,” he said.
“It’s good that we don’t have candidates getting in by acclamation. Running a campaign is always good for everybody.”
He also expressed his thanks to outgoing Coun. Neil Olson for his work over the past four-year term.
Dvernichuk said that he expected the new council to dig right into things once they were able to meet.
“The priority right now is to look at all priorities,” he joked. “We need to try to maintain a tax base that’s not overwhelming, though you work with what you have.”
Clausing, now on her third term, said she was a bit surprised that only one new candidate was elected, but she attributed it to the work the previous council did on keeping the village its own municipality.
“We’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of us to stay viable,” she said. “I don’t want to see us dissolve. Everyone I talk to wants to stay a village, so I’ll work hard at doing that.”
White, who joined council late last term after being acclaimed in a byelection, said he was a bit surprised with how popular he was. He said the victory had not quite settled in for him yet.
“I feel relieved,” he said.
“Campaigning is always the hardest part of an election and I’m really looking forward to the new councils and starting to work together as a whole area.”
