With the Municipal Election now several days behind us, Town Councils and School Boards are getting organized for the next four-year term, as it is for the mayor of the town of Niverville.
Myron Dyck was acclaimed as Mayor and with the results of the election will be working together with a fairly new council.
After all the ballots were counted, incumbent Nathan Dueck came out on top with 742 votes, followed by newcomer, Bill Fast with 578, incumbent Chris Wiebe with 554 votes, and a close fourth was another newcomer, Meghan Beasant with 547 votes
Dyck says he would like to thank all the candidates that ran in the election. “ I appreciate everyone just for being willing to run for the opportunity to serve the community. I’m thankful for all those who came out and voted and I want to say a big Thank You to all the volunteers who helped make Election Day a success.”
As to the two councilors who did not get re-elected, John Funk and Kevin Stott, Dyck says he reached out to each of them, following the election, and thanked them for their years of service and for the passion with which they served the people of the community.
“I told them that they could both hold their head high for all that they had been involved with, and all that they've accomplished, they could be extremely proud of that. And again, just reiterated my thanks to each of these gentlemen.”
The mayor says that regardless of who the councilors are, he is excited to start a new term. “It's kind of like the first day of school. Things are new, you're looking at the ideas that will come forward and the plans that people have and then putting that all together to see what we as a team can accomplish.”
Dyck noted that this was the first time since 2004 that the town of Niverville residents voted in 2 new councilors. In previous elections, councilors were acclaimed or were brought on as councilors had resigned.
Looking at the results of the vote, Dyck says he can’t speak to why Niverville residents voted the way they did. But he is very appreciative of those who voted and feels it will be a good council.
“I believe that there will be a lot of really good ideas. You know, we're not all the same, so I look forward to the discussions and the debates that will happen, all with the same outcome. I'm looking to move the community forward.”
Looking ahead to the next four years, Dyck says serving as a council member for the town of Niverville is work and they need each member to be themselves. “We want a good mix. If we're all just five yes-people on everything, that's A) boring and B) that's not what serving our community is like. You need to look at all the angles of the issues. When you're setting priorities, you need to have solid and resolute discussions. So that it's this, then this, as opposed to just ‘Yeah, sounds good’ and that's for sure not what the people want.”
The first meeting of the new town council is Tuesday morning at 9am at the Niverville CRRC.
Dyck says it will be a fairly light meeting, “We try to do what needs to be done but not to overwhelm, because we do have two new individuals. One thing that will be necessary on Tuesday is that we will have a resolution to appoint a deputy mayor whereas we currently don't have one, so we will be making that decision on Tuesday.”
Dyck says they will discuss whether to record the council meeting and stream them online. “We heard from many individuals during this election that wanted this done for the people that aren't available at the time when the Council meetings are held but would still like to have access to them, so that's definitely on the discussion table for Council.”