The incoming Reeve for the R.M. of Morris is looking forward to his new responsibilities.
Scott Siemens was the only person to submit their name as a candidate for Reeve in upcoming municipal election and therefore, has been acclaimed to the role. He starts at the end of October.
"I enjoyed my first term here on Council and felt ready to step in to a different role and learn those responsibilities," he explained when asked what prompted him to seek the job.
It's been two weeks since Siemens was acclaimed.
"Our CAO and current Reeve have allowed me to participate and get my feet wet, so to speak, and yes, there's a fair amount more," he added.
Despite the learning the curve, Siemens says he is enjoying the added responsibility.
As for what his focus will be over the next four years, Siemens plans to work with Council to continue providing and improving the services that he says ratepayers have come to expect.
"I feel there's areas that we can do better on," he said, citing road and drain maintenance as examples. "The R.M. of Morris has prided itself on that and it feels like we can improve on that again."
Flood prevention and prepardness is also on Siemens' radar, along with economic development.
"We do have a couple of residential developments that our R.M. has initiated in our communities and, yes, we definitley want to continue to work towards completion of those, and availability of lots so we can get more housing in. We feel there is a need from our industrial (sector). We have lots of industry in our community, and we also have industrial developments that we wish to promote more."
As well, Siemens hopes to continue with improvements in the line of communication between Council and its residents.
Meantime, one of Council's first orders of business will be to fill the two seats that were left vacant after the nomination deadline. The remaining Council was all acclaimed, meaning there will be no election in the R.M. of Morris on October 26th.