A Rural Grand Forks’ woman has announced she will run in the byelection to fill the Area D seat on the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary’s (RDKB) board of directors.
The seat was vacated in October by Grand Forks’ Roly Russell, since elected MLA for the provincial riding of Boundary-Similkameen.
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Danna Rozek O’Donnell, a long-term market garden operator on Nursery Road, said she will formerly register her candidacy when the RDKB opens the nomination period Monday, Dec. 28.
“I want to make the community a better place for my children and for my neighbours,” she told The Gazette Friday, Dec. 4.
If elected, O’Donnell said she would prioritize regionally sustainable logging practices and food security. She would also pursue avenues for agricultural development, especially increased capacity for local meat processing.
“I’d like to see that ranchers in Area D have somewhere to process their animals. We have a facility in Rock Creek but we need more.”
O’Donell stressed that she wanted Area D to join the Columbia Basin Trust, the organization of regional districts and First Nations with a share in the Columbia River Treaty.
“Geographically, we are part of the Columbia basin,” she explained, adding that membership would allow farmers and ranchers to apply for grants under the auspices of the trust.
“I volunteer in our community quite a bit,” she said. “I think by being the director, I can really give back to the community.”
O’Donnell ran for Grand Forks’ city council in 2018, taking 494 votes. She has lived in the Boundary for 25 years, she said, mostly in rural Grand Forks.
General polls open Saturday, Feb. 13, according to the district’s website.
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