Meadow Lake’s six councillors have been chosen and Mayor Merlin Seymour said they will be ready to see what the new council has to offer.
Four incumbents successfully sought re-election and will be rejoining the table: Conrad Read, Ron Dishko, Richard Levesque and Tom Harrison. Another two councillors, Clay DeBray and Mauri Young, made it to the table for the first time.
Conrad Read topped the results with 506 of the 769 votes cast and with 11 candidates running for six seats, Read was pleasantly surprised at the results, he said.
While he didn’t know everyone on the candidate list, seeing their online platforms and hearing concerns and plans during the community forum put on by the Meadow Lake and District Chamber of Commerce, Read said they were all people who were running for the right reasons.
“Regardless of what would have happened in the outcome, any one of those people that we're running would have, in my opinion, made a great councillor.”
With what he saw of DeBray and Young, Read said they will be great additions to the council table.
Even with his first-time councillor status, DeBray was second to Read in the number of votes with 468 out of the 769 cast.
It is very humbling to receive such a strong showing, he said, and he is excited to get down to business, see where the city is headed, and have a voice on the council.
“I got to tighten up the work boots here a little tighter to make sure I'm doing a good job for the people of Meadow Lake.”
It isn’t easy to make a run for a council seat, DeBray said, so kudos to everyone who did join the race.
With four councillors returning to the table, Mayor Seymour said that continuity is important for the council moving forward since it will be less of a learning curve for the council as a whole. Seymour is excited for all that DeBray and Young will learn as the council moves forward, he said.
“[I] look forward to working with both the newcomers, as well as the other incumbents that were voted in.”
Looking forward into the next term, Read said the council will be continuing their work on the strategic plan and working to address concerns regarding policing and community safety. Seymour said the next term will include some work in disaster mitigation.
