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Four of seven Westlock County councillors seeking another term

With the Oct. 16 municipal election just two months away, four of Westlock County’s seven councillors have confirmed their intentions to run again. Couns. Ron Zadunayski, Ray Marquette, Mel Kroetsch and reeve Don Savage will run again.
Four Westlock County councillors (pictured here with CAO Leo Ludwig, front row second right) have announced their bids to run for re-election on Oct. 16. Division 4 coun. Bud
Four Westlock County councillors (pictured here with CAO Leo Ludwig, front row second right) have announced their bids to run for re-election on Oct. 16. Division 4 coun. Bud Massey (front, far left) and Division 2 coun. Albert St. Louis (front, far right) have said they will not be running again.

With the Oct. 16 municipal election just two months away, four of Westlock County’s seven councillors have confirmed their intentions to run again.

Couns. Ron Zadunayski, Ray Marquette, Mel Kroetsch and reeve Don Savage will run again. Bud Massey and Albert St. Louis, on the other hand, are taking a pass and Dennis Primeau is keeping mum until the municipal inspection report is returned to council later this summer.

“I’m not commenting until we see what that says,” said Primeau.

“I’d rather not pick any direction until the municipal inspection is out, because we don’t know what that’s going to say.”

While he proclaimed his intent to run again, Marquette also said he would like to see the municipal inspection released before the election. Having joined council at the start of 2016, he highlighted his back-to-basics approach as his main contribution.

“I think I’ve helped the county a little bit with some common sense,” he said. “I enjoy trying to help how council spends the ratepayers’ money and trying to not go through four or five chief administrative officers (CAOs) in less than half a term.”

“If there’s maybe a change in councillors, there could be a little bit more stuff done with the county.”

Mel Kroetsch said it would be unfair to take everything he’s learned in the last term and not run again.

“I’ve got four years of training now that taxpayers have paid for. There are some issues I would like to see through too, like the Tawatinaw ski hill and the airport,” he said. “I’m on the water commission as an alternate and there are some issues with the northern pipeline. The waste commission is going through some interesting transformations too.”

Savage said he enjoyed being on council, but expressed his hope that the next term is a bit less exciting.

“It’s a civic duty,” he said. “You’ve got to enjoy helping other people to keep in it. It’s an honour to serve in your community.”

He noted that the county had a lot of catch up to do after a rocky four-year term.

“Public Works has held their own, they’ve done what they could,” he said. “It’s very hard for a county to get rolling when you change out your people so often.”

One file that he hoped to stay on to help guide the county through was the Tawatinaw Valley ski hill — the fate of which may be decided by a plebiscite on the Oct. 16 ballot.

“I’d like to see Westlock County find someone who would keep that place open,” he said. “It is what it is, but it’s there for the people, it’s built by the people and it’s for the people. It would be nice to find someone who would run it on a year-long basis.”

St. Louis cited the construction of the new fire hall in Fawcett as a major milestone in his tenure, but said he needed a break.

“After 22 years, I just don’t have the fire in me anymore,” said St. Louis. “I think the redo of our land use bylaw and our municipal plan was a big undertaking that was a pretty good success.”

He pointed out that the county needs to step up its road maintenance and put more work into establishing a working relationship with the Town of Westlock going forward.

“We haven’t done any maintenance to our existing pavement in years,” he said. “We put money in the budget for it, but it never happened. Our gravel roads are deteriorating. A lot of it could be due to the weather, but there’s more to it than just that.”

Massey announced his plans to not run again at the Vimy Ridge memorial service on July 1. He pulled no punches as to why he would not seek another term.

“I think my time is better spent doing other things,” he said. “I attempted to make a change and I found it is very difficult. In my opinion administration is not interested in making significant change and some of the councillors aren’t either.”

“It takes time to make change. You have to do proper research into items and I don’t think everybody has that commitment.”

Massey lamented the undoing of a number of policies he pushed for as reeve, including the open-door policy and the weekly radio program.

“I think we had moved a long ways towards transparency, but we’ve moved backwards on a lot of those policies.”

Zadunayski said that he was proud of the work that set up a rotation for gravelling roads, but echoed concerns about communication with administration and the difficulties with the ongoing changes in CAOs. He noted that a number of files, like the Tawatinaw ski hill, went overbudget without council being informed.

“In August of 2016 I had asked our financial officer if everything was on budget and on track and I was told yes,” he said. “Then on the first of October, we’re $700,000 over budget. That was disappointing.”

He said he found his job was hindered by difficulties getting basic questions answered.

“It’s been difficult to get information about what’s happening in the county right now,” he said.

“We have to stabilize our budgeting system. We have to get a handle on where the money is going — it seems to slip away without council knowing about it. It seems with previous councils and CAOs we were informed and up to date at council meetings; right now we’re not getting very much information.”

“It’s very difficult to know what you’re doing when you don’t know what’s happening.”

Regardless of whether they planned to run again or not, all seven councillors agreed the best part of the job was meeting ratepayers and developing working relationships with them.

“I’ve met an awful lot of really, really nice people,” said Massey. “By and large, people treated me very respectfully. I really liked the idea that people felt comfortable bringing their issues to me.”

Massey had some parting advice for anyone planning to run for his or any of the other seats on council.

“Don’t think it’s a part-time position,” he said. “You have to be committed and dedicated to doing the work. If you’re really going to do the job, it’s at least 30 hours a week.”

St. Louis agreed, adding that anyone planning to run needs to have an awareness of the Municipal Government Act and be ready to curb their expectations.

“I found that a lot of people go into it with the idea that they’re going to change the world,” he said. “But that’s not quite how it works. You’ve got to be able to get your ideas across and convince at least three councillors that you’re going in the right direction.”

St. Louis added that while sitting on council was not the easiest job, it was rewarding.

“I wish whoever replaces me the best of luck,” he said. “The job can be good.”

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