BARRHEAD- A familiar name has joined the list of candidates vying for Town of Barrhead councillor.
Last week Steve Bablitz announced his intentions to run for town councillor. He joins incumbents Don Smith, Rod Klumph and potential newcomer Shauna Zeldenrust who have submitted their nomination forms for Town of Barrhead councillor.
Dave McKenzie and Liam Sorenson have announced their candidacy for mayor.
Bablitz is the oldest son of Adolf Bablitz, a long-time town councillor serving 21 years and 27 with the Barrhead Agricultural Society.
However, Steve is quick to point out although he might have inherited his father's sensibility for community service, he is his own man and is running for council because he wants to contribute to the community and sees its potential.
"I believe in community and I think it has a lot to offer," he said.
He also he believes the experience he has gathered over a lifetime of working and volunteering in and outside the community will help it achieve that potential.
Although Steve was born in Barrhead, he grew up for the most part in the Grande Prairie/Spirit River area when his parents moved out of the community.
The Bablitz family returned to Barrhead in 1978, when Steve was 17 and finished his final years in high school at Lorne Jenken High School.
"My parents opened a Red Rooster store, right across from the GFR on what is now a vacant lot," he said.
After high school, Steve worked with his dad operating a drivers' training school (Barrhead/Onoway Driving School). The school taught drivers from Barrhead, Mayerthorpe, Sangudo, Fort Assiniboine and Onoway, including high school students enrolled in driver's education in both Barrhead and Onoway.
"We were busy," he said.
In addition to helping with the family business, Steve was a volunteer firefighter, an auxiliary police officer, working with what was then the Barrhead police, and a volunteer ambulance attendant.
Eventually, he would leave town again, Steve would go on to get his teacher assistant certificate at Grant MacEwan in Edmonton. Upon graduating, he would return home to work at Barrhead's J.R. Harris Junior High School in Barrhead under then-principal Kerry McElroy, for a year, before taking positions in Stony Plain.
When the program fell due to budget cuts, Steve found work for various companies in the oil field in Grande Prairie, Whitecourt and Red Deer. His work in the oil patch also took him to Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. While in Red Deer, he would also take a position with the city's transit system.
Since his return to Barrhead two years ago, he has been actively volunteering his time and energies, serving on various boards and committees, including on the town and county joint municipal twinning committee, the Barrhead Agricultural Society and the Public Library board. The twinning committee and Ag Society are particularly meaningful to him, Steve said, due to his father's past involvement. He also sits on the executive of Barrhead's Royal Canadian Legion.
As for some of the issues or items he would like to address as part of council, Steve said he would like to see if they could accelerate the road maintenance program, noting some of Barrhead's roads are in rough shape.
But he realizes that the town might not have the financial wherewithal to tackle some of the road projects he would like to see completed.
"It all depends what type of budget we have," he said, adding municipalities have limited resources to raise capital and as such are largely dependent on federal and provincial grants.
He also suggested that the municipality needs to do all it can, within reason, to attract industry and business to the community.
"We need to do something, but we can’t just willy-nilly throw money at it,” Steve said. “There are municipalities that just throw money and huge tax breaks to lure businesses in, but we can’t compete with that. We don’t have the budget.”
He also said the municipality needs to find better ways to communicate with its residents, noting he often hears people make suggestions on what council should do, but it is not in their jurisdiction.
"There are limited levers that they can pull," Steve said, realizing he won't know what some of them are until he gets on council.
He also noted, at the same time, the other levels of government are "downloading" responsibility and costs onto municipal governments, using the new police funding model as an example.
On the policing front, Steve agrees with the town and county councils, who along with dozens of other municipalities have voiced their support in keeping the RCMP as their police force.
"It is going to create more of a mess than its worth. I remember the hassle we went when we went through when we switched from the town's police force to the RCMP," he said, adding policing is more difficult now than when the municipality had its own force, noting at the time they had a much smaller geographical area to cover.
Steve is also concerned about the lack of volunteerism he sees in the community.
"I used to be a member of the Kinsmen, now they are gone, and so are many other service clubs," he said. "We [volunteers] are getting old and no one wants to volunteer anymore. We need to get more people interested in working and helping out the town. I think this is where council can play a role. We need to get people interested and involved in things."
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
