Candidates in Athabasca County Ward 9 (Richard Park) are gearing up for next month’s elections and getting their campaign platforms rolling.
Challenger Larry Manysiak said he’s fighting the election in support of the Second Chance Animal Rescue Society (SCARS) shelter – which his opponent is voicing concern over – and improving road safety for schoolchildren.
The incumbent councillor, Mike Demko, is highlighting his record of recruiting new doctors and championing local agribusiness.
Manysiak said the SCARS shelter does a valuable job by giving abandoned pets a safe home and new owners prepared to care for them. He said that noise and dust pollution from the shelter wasn’t an issue, and that Demko – whose home borders the facility – didn’t have any reason to complain about or oppose the operation.
“I totally disagree with what Mike and the county are deciding,” said Manysiak of the SCARS facility. “I think (SCARS) are doing a good job, personally.”
While Demko said he isn’t against the shelter, the three-year county councillor said that it would be better placed in an industrial area where people wouldn’t be bothered by noise pollution.
“Manysiak doesn’t live in a neighbourhood where 30 dogs are running around,” said Demko from his home in Sawdy.
A new bylaw dealing with the shelter just passed its first reading at the county, according to Demko.
Manysiak’s second major campaign platform plank is improving road safety, voicing concern that drivers ignoring speed limits on highways endanger the safety of schoolchildren catching buses and those people whose homes are on main roads.
“We have to have people out there monitoring these things,” he said.
While the police are, in his view, doing a good job, Manysiak said he also wants to see greater county initiatives for tackling dangerous driving and highlighting road safety both in Ward 9 and across the whole county.
Demko said speeding drivers have caused no fatalities as yet, but warned that people who broke the law should pay the price.
“We will do everything in our power to provide a service and make sure children are safe,” he said.
Yet Manysiak was still concerned over a few dangerous drivers – whom he termed “bad apples” – posing a major public safety risk both to children and other road users.
Meanwhile, Demko touted the success of the doctor recruitment program he helped initiate.
“We’ve brought one male and one female doctor from South Africa,” he said.
Demko said he also lobbied successfully for more hospital beds – up from 10 to 27 – so that more patients could come for treatment and the doctors would have reason to stay and work in Athabasca.
“I want to continue doing that,” said Demko.
The three-year incumbent also voiced support for local agribusiness and farmers, saying that it was important to attract more farming-related businesses to Ward 9.
