Morinville Mayor Lloyd Bertschi will serve another term after beating challenger Joseph Trapani in a tight race.
“It is great to get back in again and great to have the competition and read from the direction the town is going in,” Bertschi said, moments after his election victory was declared.
Bertschi will be joined on council with Gordon Boddez, who earned the most votes with 1,088, followed by fellow incumbent Paul Krauskopf (1,050), newcomers Lisa Holmes (1,007), Nicole Boutestein (913), David Pattison (812). Incumbent Ben Van De Walle rounded out the new council with 777 votes.
Bertschi won 964 votes with Trapani netting 823. Trapani, though disappointed, said he would be back and pledged to run for mayor again in 2013.
“That is the way life goes sometimes and I wish I had been mayor, but I’m not and Morinville now has to live for another three years with the same mayor,” he said. “I have every intention of running again in three years.”
The now four-term mayor said the close race surprised him and he was concerned about getting out the vote in the final days.
“What I've been hearing at the doors and around town was that I was a shoe-in and not to worry,” said Bertschi.
Bertschi lost a close vote for the presidency of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) last year and said the strong support he received at the door made him worried about whether or not enough of his supporters would get to the poll.
“That complacency was scaring me because I was starting to hear the same things that I was hearing [during the AUMA election] so I’m glad to see the vote got out.”
Trapani, who was on the fence on nomination day about whether to run for council or mayor, said he still felt he made the right choice.
“Everybody I talked to wanted a change and everybody asked me because of my experience as a councillor and as a former CAO,” he said. “They all thought I was the best candidate.”
Bertschi said his first priority would be to meet the newly elected council.
“I've asked the CAO to arrange meetings with all of the councillors”
Bertschi pledged during the campaign to explore having the town develop an industrial park to help attract new businesses to town, as well as a cutting property tax rates for new businesses moving to the community.
He also said he would seek to have architectural drawings completed on a possible recreation centre so the town can understand the full nature of the costs.
The two candidates shook hands briefly at the Parish Hall Monday night but Bertschi said he was disappointed with how Trapani had portrayed him during the campaign.
“I was absolutely disappointed with the pose he took,” he said, but declined to get into details.
Trapani said he tried to be gracious in defeat but Bertschi had turned him away.
In total there were 1,920 votes cast in the election all at the town’s one polling station at the Parish Hall.
The new council is set to be sworn in on Friday at 2 p.m. in council chambers.
