The longest-serving Niverville Town councillor is throwing his well-worn hat in the ring, again.
John Funk has been on council for 34 years. While he's been Deputy Mayor, Interim-Mayor and even Acting Mayor for a bit, these days, Funk is simply asking for your vote on October 26 as he’d like to extend his stay on Niverville Town Council.
Thinking back to his earlier years, Funk says, his kids were still small when he was first elected to council in 1988. “My parents were aging fast, at the time. The two main reasons I wanted to be on town council were that I saw a need for a personal care home so that my parents could stay in the community. I also wanted more sports amenities. At the time, all we had was an ice rink and maybe 1 baseball diamond for the kids. And now, not only do we have a personal care home, but we have many different senior living places. As well, this last year the multi-sports-plex with a new field house and arena, connecting to the new high school opened up. That's what we envisioned back then, but it took a long time to get.”
Funk says his years on council have been like running a business. “There is so much that the community wants, and we want to deliver. And so, we've been a very progressive Council. We’ve tried to make Niverville a place that you feel that you belong to, like part of the slogan “Where you belong”. Where you want to live and that has taken off very well. Our residential areas are growing leaps and bounds. Right now we also want to grow our business. We have a very good business park. We’ve got a town where people can not only live but also work. We are a very young community. We want our families to grow here. We have super schools with Hanover School Division and we have sports, arts, and so much going on that our kids can get involved with. I think we're a town still small enough where you know your neighbours and you know the people around town, so I think that’s what makes it exciting to be on council.”
When it comes to what he is still hoping to accomplish as a councillor for the town of Niverville, Funk says, “We're just putting in our water treatment plant and it should be up and running in the next number of months and that'll serve our community for 20 years. We are limited to our lagoon capacity now and we're working together with different municipalities to make a mechanical sewage system, so that is definitely one of the big ones that we're pushing. We also have infrastructure issues in the centre of town that needs to be fixed. The sewers are starting to crumble and some of the streets don't have water lines yet, so those are the things that will part of bring those up to date with what the rest of the town is.”
When asked ‘Why should Niverville residents vote for him on October 26?’ Funk says, “I hope they would look at my proven record. I have the best interests of the residents of the town in mind, especially the seniors. But, I also have four grown children, with families. Our kids are all married and living in town and most of them are working in town. So that's why I have a very strong interest in business. That my family can work here and live here. And then, by all means, my grandchildren are all in school here. Two just graduated now and one just finished kindergarten. So, I have the interests of daycare, elementary school, and all the sports facilities in mind as well. That's all very personal to me.”
Funk notes, though several of the council members have been together for a number of years now, “we definitely don't agree on all subjects at all, but we work things through and when we're done, we work as a unit, which I think has been a very strong point for the town.“