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Status quo for Enderby council

There’s no change in Enderby.
14053807_web1_copy_181010-VMS-M-enderby
Individuals running for council included (From left to right): Shawn Shishido (incumbent), Brian Schreiner (incumbent), Roxanne Davyduke (incumbent), Tundra Baird (incumbent), Brad Case (incumbent), Raquel Knust (incumbent), Darren Robinson (challenger).

There’s no change in Enderby.

Mayor and council were re-elected in Saturday’s municipal election.

Incumbent Greg McCune fought off a challenge for mayor from Herman Halvorson, with McCune picking up 623 votes to 194 for Halvorson.

Councillors Roxanne Davyduke (652), Tundra Baird (650), Raquel Knust (630), Shawn Shishido (599), Brian Schreiner (586) and Brad Case (563) held off a challenge from Darren Robinson (464).

“I’m super excited that it’s the same group re-elected,” said McCune. “They are totally, passionately committed people to this city and they worked very, very hard. They basically campaigned for four years straight, and they deserve to be back. We can start work Monday morning, get back at it. There’s no learning curve. We’re going to continue to do what we’ve been doing but also take the comments we heard as we went door knocking.

“We’ll discuss all of the issues that were proposed to us during the campaign.”

Both McCune and Halvorson know each other well. They’ve been together on the board of the Regional District of North Okanagan — McCune as Enderby Director and Halvorson as Rural Enderby Electoral Area F director. Halvorson had been either director or alternate for the past 13 years.

“The people have spoken, they’ve spoken very clearly on the mayor and spoken that they want to stay with the status quo,” said Halvorson, who said, at 70, this will likely be his last kick at the municipal politics can.

“My total focus was dealing with the debt levels Enderby is packing. They’re packing too much debt, about 2.5 times more debt per capita than the City of Vernon. I was trying to identify that to the people, that’s where it’s at. I think they got the message where I was coming from. I obviously got the message city residents don’t mind that. That’s the way it goes.”

Related: Enderby votes

All six Enderby council members were seeking re-election, challenged only by one: Darren Robinson.

Four years ago, Roxanne Davyduke earned 681 votes, Brad Case received 617, Shawn Shishido received 613, Raquel Knust earned 605, Tundra Baird received 554 and Brian Schreiner received 488 votes.

Similar results came this year.

During the electi0n campaign and at the all-candidates forum, the six incumbents presented as a unified group, arguing the need to stay together for another term to “finish what they started.” Robinson said he was running for a seat because “fresh perspectives are integral to progress.”

After the results came in, the Morning Star caught up with all six elected council members who were all celebrating together.

“I’m very excited and honoured to represent our city again,” said Davyduke, who topped the polls for the second election in a row. “We have an amazing council that is committed and dedicated and I can’t say enough about them. It’s going to be a great another four-year term again continuing to serve our city and work for the community.”

The five other council members echoed her sentiments.

“It’s been a real whirlwind and I’m just so proud that our team can stay together and it’s just been an amazing experience working with our council and we are going to do amazing things in the next four years,” said Baird.

“We have a meeting on Monday and it’s the same group coming into that meeting and we’re just going to keep pushing the way we have for the past four years,” said Knust in agreement.

“As a group, we’ve always stood by each other and it’s been a fantastic group in terms of what we’ve been able to achieve,” said Shishido. “We actually like each other and respect each other enough that if we don’t agree on everything, it doesn’t hurt each other’s feelings and in this upcoming term, we’ve got some big things in the works.”

“This is my fifth term and I can say it’s the term that I’ve had the most fun and had the most energy and the things we’ve accomplished with this group of people is great,” Case said. “We’re focused on our community becoming a better community moving forward. That’s what we’re doing and that’s what we plan to do in the next four years and the community has spoken that this is what they want to do too.”

“We have so much stuff that we plan to do that will help make Enderby a great place to live. It’s exciting, it’s rewarding and, at the same time, really humbling and we thank the community for all their support,” said Schreiner.

Four years ago, McCune defeated incumbent Mayor Howie Cyr, 568-356. Davyduke topped the polls with 681 votes, Case was second (617), Shishido third (613), Knust fourth (605), Baird fifth (554) and Schreiner got the last seat with 488 votes.

Enderby had the highest voter turnout in the North Okanagan four years ago with 39 per cent. In 2014, Enderby had the highest voter turnout in the North Okanagan. This year, B.C. estimated 2,383 eligible Enderby voters. On Saturday, 829 votes were cast out of 2,383 eligible voters for a 34.5 per cent turnout.

Related: Enderby hosts all candidates forum

Related: Enderby incumbents hope to hold seats

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