Turner Valley Mayor Barry Crane will be back for a second term uncontested, while nine council candidates will campaign for six positions over the coming six weeks.
Crane was acclaimed Sept. 20 at noon when nominations for the upcoming municipal elections closed. He said he will still use the campaign period to talk to Turner Valley residents. Crane was elected in a byelection in 2019 after former Turner Valley mayor Gary Roundtree stepped down.
“I am going to go knocking on doors because I think this is a great opportunity to ask residents what we did well and what we can do better,” Crane said.
Over the next term Crane said he will continue to focus on financial responsibility and amalgamation.
“Fiscal responsibility is number one,” Crane said. “Cooperating with the amalgamation and the Black Diamond council to ensure we have continuity of information and everyone is comfortable moving ahead.”
Creating more parks and pathways and discussing a new community centre for Diamond Valley is also on Crane’s agenda.
“I think it’s time that we really start to have the honest conversation about a new community hall and what a new community hall would look like,” Crane said. “The Flare n’ Derrick is on its last legs and it is on its way out.”
The Flare n’ Derrick was built in 1975. Crane said he would like to see conversations between Turner Valley and Black Diamond about the future of a joint community centre begin now that the Towns have agreed to amalgamate.
“Hopefully it can start the conversations for the next councils when we amalgamate the municipalities to really start looking at a community hall that services everybody,” he said.
Nine people, including four incumbent candidates, have submitted their nomination papers for the six councillor positions.
Current Turner Valley councillors Lana Hamilton and Jamie Wilkie are not running in this election and had their last council meeting online Monday night.
Crane said he is endorsing all of the returning councillors for election and has only met with newcomer Hazel Martin, who has acted as the Town’s interim community events planner.
The election will be Oct. 18. Turner Valley and Black Diamond could be back to the polls within a year if the Province approves the Towns’ joint request to amalgamate and their timeline for a new mayor and council election in November of 2022.
If the amalgamation is approved, the two councils will be reduced to one six-person council and a mayor.
Follow the Western Wheel and Okotokstoday.ca for profiles on all the candidates for Turner Valley council in the coming weeks.
