And the winners are... (Rivers and surrounding region)
- Details
- Published on Thursday, October 23, 2014
By Sheila Runions
Banner Staff
Municipal councils and school board trustees were voted for on Wednesday, Oct. 22. RM of Blanshard, RM of Saskatchewan and Town of Rapid City are amalgamating to form RM of Oakview, effective Jan. 1, 2015. In this new corporation Brent Fortune will be the inaugural reeve.
He is currently reeve of Blanshard and he defeated RM of Saskatchewan councillor Terry Drebit for this position. Of the 1,472 Oakview voters, 652 marked ballots or 44.2 per cent; five ballots were spoiled. Fortune claimed 438 votes while Drebit garnered 255.
Oakview’s Ward 1 (the current Town of Rapid City) was contested by incumbents Lloyd Evans and Neil Wilson, and newcomer Ken Hyndman. Hyndman came out on top with 128 votes, but it was a very close finish for the second seat; Wilson had 87 votes and Evans received 86. Of the 365 voters in Rapid City, 40.5 per cent of people (148) had their say.
Oakview’s Ward 2 is the current RM of Saskatchewan. Three incumbents and one newcomer were running for two seats in this ward. Elected were newcomer Gavin Reynolds (157 votes) and Kaye Wolstenholme (147); they defeated Henry “Butch” Hales (139) and Ted Rudneski (65). Again, less than half of eligible voters (45 per cent) visited their polls; only 251 of 555 marked ballots.
Oakview’s Ward 3 was the most contested with five Blanshard incumbents running for two seats. Elected were Mark Gill (135) and Walter Froese (119); they defeated Gary Stewart (102), Ewan Common (92) and Stephen Carter (45). Ward 3 had 552 names on the voting list; 254 people (46 per cent) exercised their privilege to vote.
Town of Rivers and RM of Daly will amalgamate and form Riverdale Municipality. Running for head of council were current mayor Todd Gill and Marlin Beever, Daly’s reeve from 10 years ago. Gill will steer the new council; he defeated Beever 423 to 395, a difference of 28 votes. Riverdale printed 1,700 ballots for its voter list; 828 people accepted ballots, 10 of which were spoiled. These numbers equate a voter turnout of 48 per cent, much lower than the 2010 election at 61 per cent. Nine candidates were running for six councillor seats. Interested persons were Daly incumbents Ian Dyer, Dave Falkveitch, Larry Fast and newcomer Warren Smallwood (a resident on Daly Beach Road, which leads to Chimo Resort), and Rivers incumbents Darren Bray, Tim Gray, Ken Tait, Bryan Smith and Cam White. Elected as councillors were Dyer (633), Falkevitch (591), Tait (546), Bray (542), Fast (483) and Smith (417) who defeated Smallwood (398), White (395) and Gray (271).
Serving as local trustees are those who represent Wards 1 and 2. In the Douglas/Forrest/Rapid City area (Ward 1), incumbents Shelley Livingstone and Ron Rioux were facing off against Hayley Marshall. Elected were Marshall (269) and Livingstone (247); Rioux received 226 votes. Incumbents Carole Black and Lawrence McFarlane were campaigning against Renay Jewar in the Cardale/Oak River/Rivers ward. Elected were McFarlane (617) and Black (488); Jewar received 402 votes. Other elected trustees are Barb Gilleshammer (775), Shauna Sotas-Burton (701) and incumbent Ken Cameron (611) who defeated Clarice Robinson (475) in Ward 3 (Minnedosa area), incumbents Crystal Erickson (571) and Terry Maduke (529) against newcomer Jason Potter (409) in Ward 4 (Erickson/Onanole/Sandy Lake), and Victoria Blackbird who defeated incumbent Marie Gregory with 73 votes to 17; Blackbird represents Ward 5, Rolling River First Nation.
