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There will be plenty of opportunity for residents to join town council after four councillors have decided to step aside.
Mayor Helen Posti expressed her desire to run for mayor again earlier this spring. Until recently she was the only councillor to let their intentions be known. Another councillor has said it will be a nomination day decision and one councillor has decided to run for another term on council.
John Walker announced Monday he will be running for re-election. He said part of his decision was because he heard that at least four councillors have decided to step away from council. He added his experience on council will help keep things in balance especially if there are a lot of new councillors sitting at the table following the Oct. 18 election.
“In the past three years we have done a lot of studies on what is needed in town,” said Walker. “My aim is to try and maintain what we have and set priorities for what we need in the future.”
Walker would like to see some variety on council this term and encourages young people and women to run for council.
“If you have a strong variety of people running it better represents the community,” said Walker.
Grant van Boeschoten said he has not made up his mind — it will come right down to nomination day.
“There is a lot of information to consider and I want to take my time to consider it before I decide if I want to run again,” said van Boeschoten. “I will inform people of my intentions as soon as I know what I am going to do.”
van Boeschoten said his first term on council has been a great learning experience and it has been interesting to him to see how things were done on an organizational level.
Gord Ebden, Mitch Krecsy, Scott Kinley and Geoff Humphrey have all indicated they will not run for council seats this fall.
“I’ve enjoyed two terms on council and accomplished many things I wanted to see done like the McDonald Heights subdivision and more designated light industrial areas for the town,” said Ebden. “At this stage I have been on boards for the last 10 years and I felt it was time to take a step back. It lets other good people have an opportunity to sit on council.”
Ebden said he enjoys Eckville and plans on staying in the community but just needed a break so he could spend more time with his grandchildren. He added he would consider running for town council again someday.
“I enjoyed working with the other councillors over the last six years as we accomplished a lot of good things,” said Ebden. “I felt it was just a good time to step back and take a three year break from council.”
Scott Kinley said a lot has been accomplished over his last two terms. It felt like it was the right time for him to step back and let somebody else have a chance to sit on council, he said.
“Most of the reasons I ran have been accomplished with the finalization of the Northeast Industrial Park and McDonald Heights,” said Kinley. “I have tossed around the idea all summer of running again but after talking with my family I have come to the decision to let some other people have the opportunity to run for council. I am proud of what we were able to accomplish as a council and I will miss my time on council.”
Kinley said his plan is take a term off and possibly run in the next municipal election. He feels future councillors should be proactive. He encourages them to communicate with doctors and health officials to keep them in the community and to continue working with other municipalities around Eckville to provide better opportunities for town residents.
Mitch Krecsy said he also decided not to run again because most of what he set out to achieve when he first started on council was achieved. He added he wasn’t enjoying it as much as when he started and felt he wasn’t doing the town a service sitting on council if he wasn’t enthusiastic about it anymore.
“I am used to running a business and government doesn’t work as quickly as what I am used to,” said Krecsy. “It was frustrating wanting things to go through faster but was held up through the municipal government process.”
He said a lot of great things happened during his time on town council. His favourite was being a part of the positive changes that happened in the community.
“I am not ruling out the chance to run again in the future,” said Krecsy. “With a break I might have a renewed interest and enthusiasm. In that case I would do it again for sure.”
Geoff Humphrey said he will not be running again as he wanted to focus more on his family and business.
“I didn’t have time to devote to sitting on council,” said Humphrey. “I thought I would let someone who has more time to commit to the job have a chance to sit on council.”
Humphrey was voted in during a by-election in April of 2009 and said he enjoyed getting to experience life as a councillor. He said there were some frustrations like how much nonsense went into the simplest decisions but he didn’t rule out running again when his children got older.
With nomination day set for Sept. 20, retirements will mean at least four new councillors after the election on Oct. 18.
Nominations will open at the town office from 10 a.m. until noon on Sept. 20. Nomination forms are available at the town office or on the town’s website, www.eckville.com. Town staff are also available to answer questions or inquiries about the election by calling 403-746-2171.

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