Div. 9: Time for nine

“(I'm) interested in getting on council and making a change in our district and our division, ” said Krawec. “And trying to help our community here in the county of Athabasca with some fresh ideas and different perspectives. ”

He said this term's council did not listen to the people in his area who wanted utilities to go across the new bridge and took issue with the new pool development.

“There was a lot of concern and a lot of people were voicing their opinions on it and our councillors really didn't take anything to heart that the people were saying, ” he said.

Krawec has lived in Athabasca all of his life and said in the past he did surveying for the county and has experience in road and bridge construction. He also worked in the oil fields, as a farmer, and is a captain of the Richmond Park Fire Hall.

He said the roads are at the top of his mind.

“The roads have been atrocious for the last 10, 15 years and the roads are just not built for the kind of traffic that we have now, ” he said. “We have to look at ways to change our policies and do our maintenance of the roads. ”

Krawec noted he does not expect to be making changes immediately. “Right now from what I understand we're not going to be able to say or do anything for at least one to two year, ” he said. “We can't just jump in and take over. We have to study ourselves, get involved. ”

Warren Griffin

Griffin was acclaimed for his first term in 2013.

“It's quite a learning curve, ” he said of the job. “It's a very much larger work-load than I was lead to believe and I don't regret it and I've dedicated myself full-time to it. Overall I've found it to be very rewarding and I'm glad I could be a part of it. ”

Griffin said he was proud of the work council did on finishing pool planning and in improving infrastructure and maintaining and upgrading county equipment.

“It's little things ... It's not glamorous stuff but I think it's important things to have and to have good quality infrastructure because people rely on that, ” he said.

“It's not about what I want, it's what the people want, ” he said when asked about his platform. “And right now I'm hearing, especially with this exceptional year with all the rain and water, we need to keep focus on our roads, on how we maintain them, our maintenance programs and maintaining that most vital infrastructure. ”

He also said the next council will by busy developing an intermunicipal collaborative framework and that he looks forward to setting up a code of conduct bylaw.

Griffing said his family moved to the area in 1981. His background is in farming and he has been involved with several boards including tourism and economic development board, the Athabasca landing trail steering committee, the pool committee and has been chair of the multiplex committee for the past three years.

“Between libraries and recreation and economic development and recreation services, I've been very busy, ” he said. “Which is good, because it's a lot to learn. ”