The new mayor of Morse is looking to continue the work of his predecessor.
Former councillor Rocky Penner moved to the top job by acclamation after the retirement of George Byklum.
"I'm quite excited to become the new mayor," Penner said. "I know I have some big shoes to fill. Our previous mayor served for 12 years, and he did a great job. I know that I can always go to him if I have any concerns as well as talk to my Council.
"Yeah, I'm really excited to be the mayor of Morse. We have a lot to offer in this town."
It meant a lot to Penner that the community trusted him enough to put him in the mayor's chair without any opposition.
"I see it as quite an honor that a lot of community members in Morse have that kind of faith in me," he said. "I hope I can serve them all over the next four years."
Penner noted they have some significant projects to work on.
"Being an older town we have some aging infrastructure," he said. "We have a couple of big projects on the go. We just drilled a new well this year. We're getting that tied into the water plant and there will be some upgrades to that as well. And then also our lift station. In 2025, we're going to be doing a lot of updates to that. I think it's quite important for a community to have reliable water and sewer. Those are the two biggest issues I want to look after first."
Having spent twelve years on council, he's hoping to keep dialogue going with the whole team as mayor.
"As a leader, I'm really quite big on communication," Penner said. "I want my council to be able to feel comfortable to talk to me about issues and I want to be able to listen to what the issues are, and I'd like to have good communication around council table."
With housing prices rising in urban areas, he does see some potential for growth in their community.
"Was quite surprising over the last couple of years we have had some young families move into town," Penner said. "We lost our school. I want to say I think our last graduating class was 2009. Quite a few people thought that the little town would really stop growing. But it's quite amazing. We have had some new families moving and I know housing prices are quite reasonable in a small town.
"We've had a lot of people from out of province move in. I've seen some of the new people in town have taken part in a lot of our community events. So I think we have the ability to grow in this little town."