MAPLETON – Acclaimed to a second term in the Oct. 24 election, Mayor Gregg Davidson will be joined on Mapleton council by incumbents Marlene Ottens and Michael Martin and newcomers Amanda Reid and Martin Tamlyn.
Six people were vying for the four councillor positions in an at-large election format.
The final vote tallies in the township were: Ottens, 852; Martin, 793; Reid, 693; Tamlyn, 648; Bill Sipes, 515 and Erik Begg, 306.
On election night at the PMD arena where a small crowd consisting mostly of candidates and family members awaited results, Davidson outlined some priorities for the coming term.
“We’re going to continue with our water and wastewater and certainly have to look at the housing and how we’re going to do that, and how to develop for the community in the next four years,” he told the Community News.
Davidson said council will “redo the development charges, to make sure we’re ready for the future, for the different (types of) construction we have to do down the road.”
Budgeting for current financial conditions will be a challenge council will have to face, the mayor stated.
“It’s absolutely going to be very difficult to hold the line on taxes. We know that a lot of the costs that we are having are a lot higher than they were. Just looking at the normal consumer, everything is higher and the same things are impacting our municipalities and we have to be really careful how we do our budgets.”
Both new Mapleton councillors indicated learning the ins and outs of municipal government will be job one for them.
‘The first part for me is making sure I get all the training I can to be the best councillor I can be and learning the ropes of where the last council left off and what the next four years might bring us,” said Reid shortly after the results were announced.
“I think growth and where our tax dollars are spent are really important to a lot of our constituents, so it’ll be understanding the growth that we’re being mandated to do and managing it efficiently,” she added.
Tamlyn said his first priority is “really landing in the position and coming to grips with some of the procedural stuff and getting up to date on where township is now on issues and decision-making processes.
“I’m really excited to represent the people of the township,” he added.
Only 26.32% of eligible voters cast ballots in Mapleton, that’s down from a 2018 turnout of 30.75% in 2018, when the election featured a contest for the mayor’s seat.
Of votes cast, 61% came through an online voting system employed for the first time this year, while 39% came through the mail ballot system.
*All the above results are unofficial as of publication.
