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Div. 6 now has three candidates

A third candidate has stepped up to the municipal election plate for Div. 6. Fred Slobodian will be vying for a Westlock County council seat against incumbent Mel Kroetsch and newcomer Wildrose REA president Stuart Fox-Robinson Oct. 16.
Fred Slobodian is the third man who’ll let his name stand in Div. 6 in this fall’s Municipal Election.
Fred Slobodian is the third man who’ll let his name stand in Div. 6 in this fall’s Municipal Election.

A third candidate has stepped up to the municipal election plate for Div. 6.

Fred Slobodian will be vying for a Westlock County council seat against incumbent Mel Kroetsch and newcomer Wildrose REA president Stuart Fox-Robinson Oct. 16.

Slobodian, who was born and raised in Div. 6, decided to take the leap at the encouragement of friends and neighbours back in the spring.

Now retired from his working days, though he does farm part time, he said having the time to commit to the job was one of his reasons for pursuing the post and why residents should vote for him.

With 20 years in management and 10 to 15 years in road building and maintenance under his belt, he said that he has a lot of experience to offer as a councillor, especially since roads will be one of the first issues he would tackle if elected to office.

“Not only the maintenance — because everybody understands the conditions that we’ve had in the past year or so with weather — but long-term plans, not enough road maintenance on the gravelling side, or rebuilding the road,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be any plan that’s out there or is not available to the public, or not volunteered information. Nobody seems to know that … That’s really at the end of the day what people want, is an answer of some kind.”

With that in mind, communication is key to Slobodian’s platform. If elected, he would like to hold quarterly or semi-annually town-hall meetings within the division to get public input, as well as be a stronger voice for the people.

“I’m a firm believer that you’re representing the people in your division, so you have to listen to what they have to say,” he said. “In my opinion you have to bring that to council.”

Communication is something he would also like to see improved between administration and council, which would then lead to better-informed officials.

“A lot of constituents have told me that they’d like to see the councillors be able to take a call from them where there’s a matter, or issue, a bad piece of road that needs attention and the councillor be able to call administration and have it dealt with,” he said.

“Now the constituents are telling me, ‘We can’t do that. We have to just call straight to administration and talk to them directly.’ Well, what are we there for? What’s the council there for? They elected you to be their voice.”

The ski hill in Tawatinaw was one hot-topic issue Slobodian wasn’t ready to comment on, saying that he preferred to wait until he had all the facts.

However, given what he has heard from constituents, their frustration boils down to how much the county is investing financially versus how many county residents are using the facility.

“I’ve definitely had a lot of people who are not happy with the way the situation was handled in the past and being handled at this point,” he said.

Although he noted that it was good to draw in people from outside the community who might then use local services, there aren’t many services available to them in that area.

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