Westlock County residents voted overwhelmingly for change in the Oct. 16 Municipal Election with six rookie councillors elected.
In addition to three of the four incumbents losing their races, the biggest drama played out the following morning, Oct. 17, as a pair of recounts were held for Divisions 3 and 5.
After the initial vote, incumbent Don Savage was tied with challenger Darrell Osmond at 109. The Tuesday-morning recount discovered a previously-thought spoiled ballot for Osmond, who was declared the winner with 110 votes over Savage’s 109 count.
A second recount was also held and confirmed the results of the Div. 3 vote where Lou Hall defeated incumbent Ray Marquette 108 to 105.
Meanwhile the rest of the races saw two more incumbents fall.
Victor Juylan will represent Div. 1 after collecting 216 votes to incumbent Ron Zadunayski’s 128.
Jared Stitsen won Div. 2 with 320 votes to Lavern Bazin’s 48, while in Div. 4, Brian Coleman won soundly with 221 votes, followed by Francis Cloutier with 59, John Zeise with 52 and Kirk Pollard with 48.
Fred Slobodian took Div. 6 with 185 votes, followed by Stuart Fox-Robinson with 110 and incumbent Mel Kroetsch with 27.
In Div. 7, Dennis Primeau was the only incumbent to win, with 104 votes compared to Bert Seatter’s 90.
All councillors will be sworn in Oct. 24 at which time a reeve and deputy reeve will be selected.
