Mayor and council officially sworn in

First time councillor Kent Lindgren however, was at a loss of words when describing how it felt.

“It is a very surreal feeling. I think that’s the only way to describe it,” Lindgren said

Lindgren made it into council on election night taking the final seat by just 11 votes over incumbent Cathy Richardson.

Though council has a couple of first timers, it also has seasoned veterans. This was Don Buglas’ fifth time taking the oath.

“It’s another day in the office,” Buglas said. “I know with budget coming up the amount of reading and studying a person is going to have to do to get prepared for that is going to be immense.”

Buglas added he is more than willing to help out new councillors Lindgren and Keven Steinborn if they have any inquires pertaining to the process and the best way to do them.

Once Bater took the mayoral chair he began a rousing speech which he admitted could have gone on much longer. He spoke of community safety, the downtown master plan, infrastructure, but most importantly preparing for budget.

It is a “busy couple of months ahead of us. Once we do this council orientation we have budget coming up,” Bater said. “We really need to familiarize the new councillors about how the city works before we get into budget because it would be very difficult to do otherwise.”

Bater said he’d like the budget to be released in the first week of December which would mean the Dec. 5 meeting. The first official council meeting will be Oct. 14.

The entire council for the next four years will consist of former councillor turned mayor Ryan Bater along with incumbent councillors Kelli Hawtin, Greg Lightfoot and Don Buglas. First time councillors are Kent Lindgren and Kevin Steinborn, while Len Taylor is a former councillor who decided to run again.

Greg Higgins is battlefordsNOW’s city municipal affairs and health reporter. He can be reached at ghiggins@jpbg.ca or tweet him @realgreghiggins.

by Greg Higgins

Mayor and council officially sworn in

What's Trending