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Greater Trail political scene gets a new look

Trail and Greater Area votes in new mayors, new councillors and passes a referendum
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New and returning elected officials from Rossland through to the Beaver Valley will be sworn in Monday Nov. 5. Trail Times file photo

Three new mayors, a host of new councillor faces, and a passed referendum for Trail, Warfield and Rossland, briefly sums up results from the municipal election held Saturday.

Story here: New Trail mayor is …

Story here: New mayor for Fruitvale

The Trail mayoral race became one for the history books with Lisa Pasin becoming the first woman elected as Mayor of Trail.

But Mayor-elect Pasin quickly pointed out the “woman” part of it is simply an afterthought for her.

“It’s exciting to be the first female mayor,” she began. “But for me, I am more focused on the fact that the constituents in Trail saw value in my experience that I brought to the table. Regardless of gender, I think that is what is going to carry us through the day, and I am just really excited to still remain as an elected official for the City of Trail and work really closely with all the councillors and city staff to keep moving Trail moving forward.”

Inauguration is not until Nov. 5, so until that date, Mayor Mike Martin will remain in the head chair.

“Right now, what’s going to happen is Mayor Martin and I will work on a transition plan for the next couple weeks,” Pasin said. “Luckily, I’ve been working in council alongside Mayor Martin as the Deputy Mayor for the last four years, so I have the experience to move us forward through a smooth transition.”

One of the first orders of business will be for Pasin to meet with the six acclaimed councillors to talk about appointments for the various committees that range from Silver City Days planning and Communities in Bloom to industrial property taxation, protective services and the many regional district seats.

“There are a lot of committees that do valuable work and liaise with the community,” she said. “So one of the first things that we are going to be doing is sitting down and trying to do a best-fit scenario for all the councillors to be allotted their best committee appointments.”

Incumbent councillors Robert Cacchioni, Carol Dobie, Eleanor Gattafoni Robinson and Sandy Santori will be joined by newcomers Colleen Jones and Paul Butler.

”It’s a lot of hard work that all candidates go into by putting their name forward and running for elected office,” Pasin shared. “I am thrilled with the results and very happy the community was so supportive of my campaign and my election platform.”

Pasin’s foray into politics started back in 2014 when she was voted into a councillor seat her first time out.

This leads to a similar outcome that happened in Fruitvale with Mayor-elect Steve Morissette easily winning the head role over incumbent Patricia Cecchini. Morissette is also finishing his first term as elected councillor, a seat he won his first time out four years ago.

“I sense everyone on our new team is really energized and thankful for the record number of voters that took the time to come out and vote,” Morissette told the Times. “I believe the main message that resonated with voters was fiscal responsibility after a significant tax increase this year. Additionally, people spoke of wanting more of a team approach to governance that included council, staff, and residents, which each of the successful candidates supported.”

When Mayor-elect Morissette is sworn in Nov. 5, his council will include three newcomers, Vickie Fitzpatrick, Lindsay Kenny and Bill Wenman, alongside incumbent Bert Kniss.

“Our first order of business, after the housework of sharing out the committees, liaisons, and portfolios,” Morissette said. “Will be to get to work on the budget for next year.”

Montrose also elected a new mayor, Mike Walsh, although he is a former village mayor. There will be only one new face at the council table, Paul Caron. He’ll join incumbents Rory Steep and Cindy Cook and former councillor Don Berriault.

Mayor Diane Langman was re-elected into Warfield’s head seat by defeating former councillor Tom Milne.

Incumbent councillors Raymond Masleck and Arlene Parkinson will be joined by Jim Hill and Cyra Yunkws.

“Running for municipal politics is never an easy thing,” said Langman. “Warfield has elected a wonderfully diverse group to sit at the council table. I am looking forward to working with Jim, Arlene, Raymond and Cyra through the next four years as we explore large infrastructure projects, the priority being securing Warfield’s water source. It is going to take a great deal of hard work and determination but Warfield has elected a great team who will get to work right away.”



Sheri Regnier

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