Elections and acclamations
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, September 17, 2014
By Sheila Runions
Banner Staff
Nearly four years have passed since the last municipal election, but this Oct. 22 when voters go to the polls, locals will have to deal with changes. The province forced municipalities with fewer than 1,000 residents to amalgamate to create larger areas and thus, Town of Rivers and RM of Daly will become RM of Riverdale. RMs of Blanshard, Saskatchewan and Town of Rapid City will become RM of Oakview. Councils will still have seven representatives, and candidates had to file papers by Tuesday, Sept. 16. They have until Sept. 17 at 4 p.m. to withdraw their intent but that time is nearly 24 hours past this newspaper鈥檚 deadline and approximately two hours after it has been sent to the printer. Therefore the following information is subject to change, but is as accurate as we can possibly report.
Riverdale has two men vying for head of council and nine running as councillors. Todd Gill has been on council since 1998 and in 2010 he was elected mayor; Marlin Beever was Daly鈥檚 reeve from 1992-2002 and after some time off from council, he鈥檚 decided he鈥檇 like to try for that head position again. Councillor hopefuls are all incumbents save for Warren Smallwood. Ian Dyer, Dave Falkevitch and Larry Fast are from Daly council, while town councillors Darren Bray, Tim Gray, Bryan Smith, Ken Tait and Cam White are all seeking re-election.
Oakview will have one reeve, three wards (with two representatives each) and two LUDs (Local Urban Districts). Brent Fortune has been on Blanshard鈥檚 council for 28 years and was elected reeve in 2010; he wants to remain as reeve of this new municipality. Terry Drebit was on Minnedosa council for 14 years (eight as mayor) but when he moved to RM of Saskatchewan in 1998 and election time rolled around, he wanted to be reeve. He lost that first election in his new community, but he was not discouraged and was successfully elected to council in 2010; he would now like to be Oakview鈥檚 reeve.
Oakview鈥檚 Ward 1 is the Town of Rapid City; running as councillors for this area are Lloyd Evans, Ken Hyndman and Neil Wilson. Evans and Wilson are current Town of Rapid City councillors while Hyndman is a newcomer. Ward 2 is the RM of Saskatchewan; nominated in this ward are Butch Hales, Gavin Reynolds, Ted Rudneski and Kaye Wolstenholme. All but Reynolds (a newcomer) are current RM of Saskatchewan councillors. Ward 3 is the RM of Blanshard; current Blanshard councillors Stephen Carter, Ewan Common, Mark Gill, Walter Froese and Gary Stewart would all like to be re-elected.
Both LUDs are acclaimed with only three people filing papers for their respective towns. In Oak River incumbent Marilyn Reid will retain her seat; she will be joined by newcomers David Bullock and Ernie McKay. The newly-formed LUD of Rapid City will be represented by Ron Burnell, Jay Woloski and Orest Woloski. All these men currently sit on Town of Rapid City council.
School division elections will also be held Oct. 22, but there are no boundary changes for Rolling River; elections are necessary in all wards. Ward 1 is the Douglas/Forrest/Rapid City area; incumbents Shelley Livingstone and Ron Rioux will run against Hayley Marshall for the two seats in that ward. Ward 2 is the Cardale/Oak River/Rivers district and is also represented by two people. Seeking election here are incumbents Carole Black and Lawrence McFarlane; Renay Jewar has also expressed her interest in becoming a school trustee. Ward 3 (Minnedosa area) has three positions and incumbent Ken Cameron will face off against Barbra Gilleshammer, Clarice Robinson and Shauna Sotas-Burton. Erickson/Onanole/Sandy Lake is Ward 4 and three people are running for two seats: incumbents Crystal Erickson and Terry Maduke, and newcomer Jason Potter. Ward 5 (Rolling River First Nation) has one representative; incumbent Marie Gregory and Victoria Blackbird would each like this spot.
