Now it's really official.After serving two weeks as reeve of Mountain View County following the resignation of Paddy Munro, Bruce Beattie was formally elected to the position Wednesday at council's organizational meeting.Nominated by Div. 7 Coun. Al Kemmere, who preceded Munro for a six-year stint as head of council, Beattie's selection was uncontested and unanimous.Div. 2 Coun. Trish McKean was nominated by Munro (Div. 6) to replace Beattie in the deputy reeve position ñ and again it was by unanimous acclamation.No speeches followed the one-year appointments, but at the end of the council meeting Beattie (Div. 4) expressed his gratitude in a low-key statement to fellow councillors.ìThanks for your support,î he said, ìand I'm looking forward to working with all of you.îIn an interview with the Gazette, Beattie said the direction of council is not going to change under his leadership.ìI see my job as representing the wishes of the seven of us,î he said. ìIt's not my goal to push my own agenda ñ I didn't come in with an agenda.îBeattie did, however, identify several priorities for the coming year and one of these is ìsitting down with all the towns and getting things on a good footing.îWith councillors questioning some of the terms of existing intermunicipal agreements, including the funding of town recreational facilities without county representation, ìthere are some hard feelings,î Beattie acknowledged.At a recent policies and priorities meeting, councillors agreed that these issues could be addressed at the Municipal Area Partnership level ñ provided a firm deadline is set.ìI'll be going to MAP meetings as one of the members and our goal is to make it more functional and more project-oriented,î Beattie said. ìI'm interested in participating at that level and maybe developing better relationships with the towns.îA related priority is the stalled developments west of the Olds overpass.ìWe have to find a solution for the Netook development ñ or non-development. It's an eyesore. It's something we need to deal with,î he said.ìOn the planning side, one thing I want to see is decisions made a little more on an individual basis, recognizing that not everything fits into the same box and there are extenuating circumstances sometimes.îOn operational services, Beattie said he will work with CAO Tony Martens to set standards for roads ñ something the county has never adopted ñ and determining how the operational services department is going to be managed. Since director Steve McInnis was terminated in March as part of a corporate reorganization, the department has run without an overall manager. Ultimately, he noted, ìTony will have to make the decision whether the current situation will continue.îAnother priority is to ìreaffirm our commitment to having an open and transparent process. It's important to demonstrate that we respect people's input.îWhile council has taken steps to limit the number of in-camera items on the agenda, the Gazette pointed out that all council deliberations on the Municipal Development Plan review since last winter's roundtables ñ including discussions of the results of two public opinion surveys ñ have been conducted in private.ìIt's a very good point ñ I'm glad you raised it,î he said, adding that it was ìnot by design.îDescribing himself as a ìpragmatic environmentalist,î one initiative Beattie wants council to pursue is setting up a land trust in the county, which would enable property owners to dedicate lands for perpetual conservation. ìIt's something Al was talking about when he was reeve.îA recurrent theme for Beattie, 64, is the youth vacuum in municipal affairs.ìI'm involved and don't feel old (but) we don't have a lot of young people getting involved.îThe appointment of McKean, who at 35 is council's youngest member, to the deputy reeve post is a positive step in that direction, he affirmed.ìI think Trish has done a good job for us and her constituents.îFor her part, McKean said she was ìexcited about the learning challengeî of being deputy reeve and gratified that council chose her to take on the added duties, which include chairing policies and priorities committee meetings.Beattie was first elected to council last year after a long tenure on the Ag Services Board and involvement with a wide range of provincial and federal producer organizations, having chaired the Alberta Milk Producers, the Alberta Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture Council and the Dairy Nutrition Council of Alberta.He and his wife Valerie live on their farm in Bergen where, according to his county bio, they ìraise Gelbvieh cattle, Appaloosa horses and try to make hay.îIn 2005 the couple moved their dairy herd to a location near Innisfail in a joint venture with another producer, milking 150 cows.
