Cranbrook Mayor Lee Pratt will serve another four-year term at City Hall as the lone candidate in the upcoming municipal election on Oct. 20th.
The last local mayor to be acclaimed was Ross Priest, who ran unopposed in the 2005 civic election.
Pratt says he wants to continue focusing on economic development, ensuring fiscal responsibility and tackling Cranbrook roads and infrastructure — all of which he campaigned for in 2014.
Spending $30 million over the last four years to upgrade roads and infrastructure and creating a more business-friendly environment are accomplishments Pratt says he is proud of.
“It wasn’t all me; I had a great council that bought into it too, and I thank them for their support,” said Pratt, “and we worked together on it. To be honest with you, without [Chief Administrative Officer] David Kim, a lot of that stuff never would have happened either.
“We gave him the direction and made sure it got implemented and there’s a lot that went on behind the scenes that people aren’t aware of, but for the public, dealing with the city is way better now than it ever was, in all departments.”
“…For myself, I’m proud of that, I want to continue, there are a lot of things, a lot of irons in the fire — the Tembec lands development being a big one and the council was very supportive on that and we’re looking forward to some good economic development there.”
The elections for seats at the city council table is another matter, however, with 10 candidates — half of which are incumbents.
The candidates, in alphabetical order, are Norma Blissett, Danielle Eaton, Jordan Fiorentino, Wesly Graham, Melodie Hull, Mike Peabody, Ron Popoff, Wayne Price, Curt Rasmussen and Randy Tapp.
Incumbent city councillor Isaac Hockley will not run again.
For the Regional District of East Kootenay, Rob Gay is the lone candidate for Area C — the outlying rural region around Cranbrook, while Mike Sosnowski and Stan Doehle are also running unopposed for Areas A and B, respectively.
Nowell Berg, Jack Walkley and incumbent Jane Walter are running for Area E, while Dawn Chabot Attorp, Susan Clovechok and Tom Symington are running for Area F. Incumbent Wendy Booth is not seeking another term, but has announced her intention to seek the Kootenay-Columbia nomination for the federal Conservative Party.
North of Invermere, incumbent Gerry Wilkie faces a challenge from Stephanie Stevens for Area G.
Additionally, there are five candidates running for five school district board trustee positions reserved for Cranbrook and the RDEK Area C jurisdiction.
Those candidates are Trina Ayling, Chris Johns, Doug McPhee, Wendy Turner and Patricia Wahlen.
All told, there are nine trustee spots on the Southeast Kootenay School District Board, which has jurisdiction in the Elk Valley, along with Cranbrook and the south country.
One SD5 trustee position for the Jaffray/south country area will be contested between Krista Damstrom and Randy Reay.
The election for municipal and local offices is on Oct. 20.
