BARRHEAD-Rod Klumph believes he has more to offer as a Town of Barrhead councillor than he did when he originally ran for office.
And that is why he has decided to run for re-election in the upcoming Oct. 18 municipal election.
Klumph, who is in his first term, ran in the 2017 election.
Initially, he decided to run for office because he had been contemplating retiring from his job as a bookkeeper at Barrhead and District Family Support Services, a job he held for more than a decade. Before going to work for FCSS, Klumph owned a successful accounting business.
In addition to having a background in accounting, Klumph also has his Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture and a Bachelors in Education degree from the University of Alberta. The latter Klumph put to use as a teacher at what was then Lorne Jenken High School and then the Alberta Distance Learning Centre.
"I was looking at ways I could help the community and I thought the council was a place that I could use the skills and experience," he said.
However, he admits the seed for him potentially running for municipal government might have been planted even earlier.
In the previous campaign, he was going door-to-door, talking to residents on behalf of then councillor Roy Ulmer.
"After talking to this one person for a while, she suggested that I should run," he said.
Initially, Klumph said there is a steep learning curve for new councillors as they learn the process of government and their role in it.
However, now that he is more comfortable in the role, he hopes to use what he has learned to continue to serve residents.
Klumph noted that over the past four years, he has taken several training courses and attended several seminars, many of them hosted by the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA).
"I would like to use it more, rather than just leave council and have someone else go through that process from the beginning," he said.
Highlights of his first term
At the top of the list, Klumph said he is pleased with the effort council has taken, with the help of town staff, to keep the mill rate as low as possible. The residential and non-residential mill rate has been frozen for the last two years, while in 2018 and 2019 the mill rate for both residential and non-residential increased by 0.25 per cent.
"I am pretty happy with the strong financial position the town is in," he said, referring to the positive audit report the municipality has received in recent years.
Klumph added he was gratified to be part of several decisions council had a part in to improve the town, specifically referring to the creation of the dog park, upgrades to the town's wastewater system, the pavement and sidewalk revitalization project, recently completed on Main Street, as well as the replacement of the traffic lights on Main Street with a four-way stop.
At the time, he said, the decision to put in a four-way stop was controversial, but now he believes residents now see that it was the right decision.
Klumph also lists the hiring of chief operating officer (CAO) Edward LeBlanc as one of council's achievements.
"Council only has one employee, the CAO. Mr. LeBlanc has proven himself more than worthy of the position," he said, adding that helping LeBlanc and council are a small list of equally talented supervisors and support staff.
"When you have staff like ours, they make councillors look pretty good."
Goals and challenges for the new term
Klumph said he wants to continue to work on the goals he originally campaigned on: having a safe, prosperous, healthy and caring community.
If he had to choose just one above the rest, he would choose caring.
"I see in society continuing divisions, of people getting pitted against each other," he said. "I would like everyone to develop respect for each other, regardless if they have lived here all their lives, are new to the community or have a differing view. We need to look after one another."
One of the avenues he suggested is the hosting of community meetings, forums and block parties.
"If people get to know each other they would start to take care of each other," Klumph said. "It would start small, a block at a time and work from out from there."
He also sees a role for council to help foster volunteerism, in the community, especially in youth.
Another challenge councillors will face is how to deal with the increased cost of doing business, such as maintaining ageing infrastructure and the or the provincial requirement of contributing more towards policing.
This is in addition to the provincial cuts to municipalities' Municipal Sustainability Initiative grants.
"We have to make do with what we have," he said. "We have to look around the town and start planning on how we are going to use our money and not count on outside sources."
On the topic of safety, Klumph said it might be time to revisit the concept of hiring private security to help patrol the town during peak crime periods. Over the last term, council has floated the idea multiple times, suggesting the Chamber of Commerce or the Barrhead Main street Merchants' Association could help fund the service.
"Barrhead is a safe community, but when you have things stolen from your home, yard garage or vehicle it undermines people's confidence in that," he said.
