Mayoral race one to watch in Paradise
Healthy slate of candidates vying for council seats
Paradise has been a rapidly growing town for years.
Town councils of the past have been criticized for putting the cart before the horse, as it were, bowing to developers, plowing down trees in the rush for new housing and subdivisions with little advancement in the infrastructure needed to keep pace.
Traffic congestion issues, a lack of green space and recreational facilities and overcrowding in schools were constant complaints as municipal elections rolled around.
Over the past four years there’s been improvement on many of these fronts with road widening and a roundabout, and a new double-ice complex and plans for new schools.
Incumbent Mayor Dan Bobbett is seeking re-election and counting on the residents of Paradise to have taken notice of improvements in the town since he has held the reins.
He says there’s much more to come under his leadership.
Businessman John Roberts, who is challenging Bobbett for the mayor’s seat, says the turnaround has been too slow with spending out of control and taxpayers not being kept in the loop on where their tax dollars are going.
He says residents want change, and he’s ready for the challenge.
The mayoral race in Paradise will be one to watch on Tuesday.
Bobbett says his campaign has been gaining momentum going into the final stretch and he plans on knocking on doors right up to election day.
“People are just focussing on infrastructure, and we’ve been doing that. And they still want to see future road connections and we are working on that with all levels of government,” Bobbett said.
“One thing that keeps coming up is a swimming pool and we’ve cost it at $20 million and we will need, obviously, other levels of funding from provincial or federal, or even partnering with another municipality to make that a reality,’’ he said. “And similarly with a new road connection. In our traffic plan it talks about a road connection to the Outer Ring Road, probably $15 million to $20 million for that piece of infrastructure so people can get to work efficiently and effectively.
“We’ve spent $16.5 million on road networks, the roundabout, making traffic flow better within the town and we’ve done a good job with that, but residents want to see that continue.”
Roberts said he’s also been hearing from a lot from residents about the need for a pool, and there are still water and sewer work needing to be done and traffic congestion issues, all of which he said he will address if elected.
He too says he’ll be knocking on doors even on election day.
And mostly, he said, people tell him they are fed up with a lack of transparency on the present council.
“People don’t like the behind the scenes politics, and there’s a lot of that right now,” he said. “That’s what I’m hearing at the door. It’s gone so much now that people are voting in blocks. I went to an area last night and the whole street is voting in blocks.”
Roberts said he’s been pressing council to release information on the resignation of two former senior management staff and the money and benefits paid to them. He said the deal was never ratified in a public council meeting. That is required under legislation.
He also said he’ll roll back a 26 per cent increase in stipends approved by the present council.
In addition to the mayoral race, the Town of Paradise has a healthy list of people vying for council seats.
Seeking re-election to council are Patrick Martin, Elizabeth Laurie, Paul Dinn, Sterling Willis and Deborah Quilty.
New faces seeking seats on council are Sheldon Antle, Coreen Bennett, Glen Carew, Scott Dawe, Allan English, Neil Farrell, Tony Kelly, Reggie Lawrence, Anthony Pittman, Kimberley Street and Jamie Thornhill.