City hall remains an issue
Question of how soon Westside needs a city hall among those addressed by candidates at forum
There was a familiar theme to the pledges of West Kelowna municipal candidates at the all-candidates forum on Wednesday.
Close to 300 people heard most candidates talk about safe drinking water, good roads, more sidewalks, increased public safety and economic development.
Because 16 candidates are vying for six seats on West Kelowna council, there wasn’t time for a questionand-answer period for council candidates at the Westbank Lions Community Centre.
Instead, each candidate for mayor, council and school trustee was given 90 seconds to introduce himself or herself to the standing-roomonly crowd, with some having greater success than others at getting their message out.
While most council candidates kept to the familiar issues, incumbent Rusty Ensign told the crowd he thought West Kelowna still needed a city hall.
Incumbent Rick de Jong talked about lobbying the provincial government for improved health services.
Brad Dobbin wanted to make improvements to the road system so “people can move on the damn thing without getting stopped all the time.”
Rosalind Neis, who is running for re-election as councillor, sent her regrets.
After the introduction of the candidates, there was a question-andanswer period for mayoral candidates Gord Milsom and Mary Mandarino, and for school trustee candidates Chantelle Desrosiers and Chris Vernon-Jarvis.
Mandarino and Milsom were grilled about a city hall, clean drinking water, economic development, traffic and social issues.
“I'm not against having a city hall eventually, but right now we have issues that are far more important to our public — clean water, safe roads, safe schools,” said Mandarino, who suggested putting office space on the land given to West Kelowna for a city yard.
Milsom, a vocal supporter of the West Kelowna city hall project defeated in referendum, said the city should wait until projects including the water treatment plant and Boucherie Road upgrades are completed before considering a city hall.
To improve traffic flow, Milsom said he would lobby the province to eliminate some of the lights on Highway 97 and look at exchanges where appropriate, while Mandarino talked about a bridge across Powers Creek out of Glenrosa as part of a bypass road to move traffic more freely, as well as addressing traffic lights.
Both school trustee candidates agreed a new high school for West Kelowna was a top priority, that SOGI 123, resources that deal with sexual orientation and gender identification, is a good thing and the grade reconfiguration on the Westside was the board’s worst failure.
After the question-and-answer period, people could visit the booths of the candidates for more information.
Election day is Oct. 20.
I’m not against having a city hall eventually, but right now we have issues that are far more important to our public — clean water, safe roads, safe schools.