County councillors unanimously vote Jim Rennie back in as mayor for another 12-month term

 

Woodlands Mayor Jim Rennie is back in for another term at the helm after a unanimous vote from council on Tuesday, October 16 at the Regional Municipal Office in Fort Assiniboine. Unlike town politics where the mayor is voted in by residents every four years, Woodlands County councillors vote for a mayor each year. “We have seven different divisions in Woodlands County and you geographically must live within one of those regions to run for it in an election. Through that, members of council are elected, and those seven councillors pick who will be the mayor on a 12-month rotation,” explained Mayor Rennie.

This will be his 14th year as mayor and he said he is honoured by their support. “I hope I do my best to conduct myself properly in front of our residents when I’m representing our community. I’m very, very proud of Woodlands County and this isn’t something that I take lightly. I feel very lucky to be able to do this.”

Currently, Woodlands County council is in the middle of negotiations on many cost-sharing agreements with several municipalities and Mayor Rennie said tightening their belts will be a must. “We just found out that we not only have one of our taxpayers with just over a million dollars that hasn’t been able to pay but there is now a second company that has 2.5 million dollars that they haven’t paid. Twenty-five per cent of our budget didn’t show up this year in the taxes and we’ve never had this happen before. It puts us in a really tough spot.” Though the taxpayers cannot be named, it is thought to be that the issue of not paying stems from extreme financial restraints.

With such large financial blows including loss of funding of just under a million dollars in 2017, Mayor Rennie said things will have to change. “I just don’t know where it’s going to come from. We are going to have to rethink how we do things. We are short three million dollars that we were planning for and every dollar was spent in our budget so this is pretty serious.”

Going into a more restricted budget season, Mayor Rennie said he is grateful for many things. “We are very lucky to work with great partners that can offer services that our residents need so for that we are very fortunate. The hard part is still, when the money disappears, how do you continue to pay for everything?”

One of the upcoming projects that will be focused on will be exciting for users of two non-paved roads. “I know that one of my concerns, and that I’m wanting to know more about, is the engineering of the paving on Range Road 120 and the paving on the old Blue Ridge Highway. There’s some really good opportunities there and 2019 will get that engineered up and get it ready so that if we can get a grant or if we get our funding back then we will be able to pave those roads.”

He said that council is also looking forward to continuing the partnerships with all the agricultural societies and community non-profit groups. “We’ve got some real winners there and I look forward to continuing to work with them.” He added that working with the government, both provincial and federal, continues to change and making sure meetings are handled correctly is very important. “I really enjoy the challenge of that. It never gets old because everything is always changing.”

Mayor Rennie is proud to be continuing as mayor of Woodlands County and is looking forward to the challenges it brings and working with council to solve them. “Everyday when I wake up I can’t wait to see what I’m going to get to do.”