Redcliff welcomes a pair of rookies to town council

By Jeremy Appel on October 18, 2017.

jappel@medicinehatnews.com @MHNJeremyAppel

There will be two fresh faces when the new Redcliff town council is sworn in on Monday.

Newcomers Chris Czember and Shawna Cockle were elected to council in Monday’s municipal election.

They will be joined by incumbents Cathy Crozier, Larry Leipert, Eric Solberg and Jim Steinke.

Czember, who came in second place with 721 votes, said he’s honoured to have gotten so much support as a newcomer.

“It’s obviously very flattering to know that many people think I can represent them on council,” he said. “It’s a very heartwarming feeling.

“I didn’t really have any expectations going in. I was totally prepared mentally to get elected … and I was also mentally prepared to not get in at all.”

Czember said his first goal is to establish a bus route to Medicine Hat’s Canalta Centre for various events, including hockey games.

“It’s been recently brought to my attention that we had a bus route in the past for a trial period and citizens just didn’t use it.

“But I think with better marketing, and during a specific, expected high-traffic event, like weekend Tigers games perhaps, we should be able to gauge if the Town of Redcliff really wants it,” he said.

Cockle, the race’s other winning neophyte, received 643 votes.

“I’ve kind of gone through a range of emotions this morning,” said Cockle.

“The bottom line is I want to be the change I want to see, so that’s kind of my direction right at this point. I know it’s something I wanted to do and I’m happy I’m there. I’m very hopeful for the future.”

Her major priority on council, which she said is shared by newly-elected Mayor Dwight Kilpatrick, is to create a long-term infrastructure plan.

Crozier, a victorious incumbent who received 648 votes, said she’s “very excited” for the next four years.

“It looks like we’re going to have a great team to come together and work hard to bring Redcliff into the future,” she said.

Crozier, entering her third term, said the new council will need to spearhead the repair of some outdated facilities in town.

“Now we’ve got to look at our sewer and stormwater systems,” she said. “We’re going to have to work diligently to repair them, replace them, whatever we need to do to get this town back where we can start developing again and bring some economic development into the future.”

Leipert, re-elected for a second term with 668 votes, also said repairing the sewer system is one of the town’s most urgent priorities.

“I don’t think we can do much without addressing the inflow and infiltration that we’re having in our sewer system, which is flooding people’s basements as soon as we have a rain event,” he said.

Like Crozier, Leipert said expanding Redcliff’s sewer capacity must come before any new major initiatives.

Steinke, who won with 703 votes, said he expected council to collaborate effectively in the next four years.

“We’re all grownups and we can work together,” he said. “We have two new people on council, so it’s going to take them a little bit of time to get into the swing of things, but I’m sure they are both fairly capable people. It should be business as usual.”

Coun. Chere Brown opted not to seek re-election, while Kilpatrick sacrificed his seat on council for his successful mayoral bid, leaving two seats open.

With seven candidates competing for six seats, all but one were elected.

Coun. Eric Solberg, who received the most votes with 773, and JD Gaetan, who received the least with 389, were both unavailable for comment before press time.

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