Vanderhoof residents have decided to bring back Gerry Thiessen as mayor for another four years.
Thiessen has worked with the District for the last decade, starting in a councillor’s seat before taking the head office job, and explained to My Nechako Valley Now he plans to focus on changing access to resources.
“My hope is that they will see confidence in rebuilding, as well as making decisions going forward and stuff,” said Thiessen.
“You have a new council as well, and they just bring to so many views and characteristics to the table, so we will continue to be vibrant and to grow during the next four years.”
He won with 62% of the vote, nearly 250 votes ahead of contender Justus Benckhuysen.
Moving forward, Thiessen also wants to see two major areas addressed with the new council.
“We want to figure out how we can invest more into the community and we’ve made a commitment to see some kind of tax structure to encourage investment in the community. Housing also turned out to be a strong issue that we need to work with, especially during the winter months.”
He said he’s humble local residents are continuing to support his campaign.
Thiessen will be joined by council-winners Kevin Moutray (incumbent), Brian Frenkel (incumbent), Ken Young (incumbent), Cindi Lauze, John Murphy (incumbent), Spencer Siemens.
Of the more than 3,100 people in Vanderhoof eligible to vote, only 37% showed up at the polls for this year’s election.
For more in-depth details about the District’s election, you can click here.