WESTLOCK – Village of Clyde residents will not be returning to the polls May 15 for another byelection and instead have 66-year-old Alex Strembesky representing them on council after he was officially acclaimed April 19.
The seat became available last month following the resignation of Coun. Starla Sydia in early March. Nomination Day was held April 17, at which time no names were entered for the anticipated byelection in May and the following day, Strembesky put his name forward and was unchallenged.
“There was a vacancy, nobody looked like they were going to fill it so I decided I would try,” said Strembesky, noting although he has sat on various boards and associations, this is his first taste of municipal politics. “It’ll be interesting to see how it goes.”
Strembesky is the latest to join council, as last summer Alma Cruise Irwin was the sole candidate to put her name forward when there was a byelection called for July 2022 and she was officially acclaimed June 15. While Strembesky has yet to meet his fellow councillors and with administration, he anticipates being sworn in at an upcoming meeting and looks forward to contributing to the municipality that he has called home for the past eight years.
“I’d like to see the village grow in population. It has very little to no crime and it would be a nice little place to live for families,” he said, noting as councillor he wants to help ensure that “administration and (council) are going to look out for the best interests of the ratepayers and the people that live in the village.”
For Strembesky, several important areas include seeing services maintained, upkeep of infrastructure, helping council and administration move forward “to try to bring more people into the village and try to get new subdivisions” which would help draw people to Clyde. He would also like to see a store return to the village.
“It’ll help the ratepayers,” he said. “Then the village can create different things for the people. Your council is supposed to be looking after your interests, but you have to play a role in that also.”
