Division 8 will choose between experienced Athabasca County councillor Larry Armfelt and Gloria Bury, who said there is a better way of doing things, in the municipal election.
Armfelt is fresh off his 10th year as Athabasca County councillor and said his experience on council and in the division makes him the person for the job.
“This is my country. I grew up here. I went to school here. I worked here,” he said. “This is my area, and I just want to keep making improvements.”
Armfelt said his top priority is the road system going west from the Athabasca Regional Multiplex, which he said might become dangerous once the school and the swimming pool are in the area.
“I’m concerned about the existing road going west which, in my opinion, has to be upgraded to accommodate that more than doubling of the traffic,” he said.
Armfelt said doctor recruitment and retention is also at the top of his priorities.
“If I could influence that in terms of having a steady number of doctors here with a steady hospital accessibility I would really like to work on that,” he said. “We have peaks and valleys, peaks and valleys, and I just think we need a steadying of the docs and the hospital care for the good of everybody.”
He said he also wants to continue working on senior housing, which he said could be accomplished on a break-even basis if there is also municipal involvement.
Armfelt was born in the county and has lived in the division permanently since 1980. He raises horses and is involved in the Athabasca Lion’s Club.
“I have a knowledge base,” he said. “And I think I express my knowledge base in a workable way.”
Bury is also a lifelong division resident who said she is fighting to give Division 8 its voice back.
“Things have changed from in four years’ time,” she said. “And there’s more different ways of doing things, and I think that we really need to be a little more transparent on why we’re doing things and we have to have the honesty.”
Bury said social media is a different way of conveying information to residents that should be utilized.
She said that infrastructure is her primary concern, as people have told her they do not feel safe driving to work every day on county roads.
“When we have school busses travelling down these roads, we need to ensure that they are in the best state they can be in, whether it be snow removal, gravel, rebuilding or just good maintenance,” she said.
Bury also said planning and development is at the top of her mind.
“I’d like to really look at some of the planning and developing that’s going on,” she said.
Bury has years of administrative experience, having worked with the government, at Edwin Parr Composite School and t Athabasca University. As a volunteer, she has served as the president, vice-president and director of the district ag society.
“I’m straightforward, I’m honest, I’m transparent and I have no hidden agenda,” she said. “Whatever happens in this division affects me as well as it does every other resident county tax payer in Division 8. So I want to make sure and I want to give them the voice that’s going to be heard around that County table.”
