Bruce Beattie has been re-elected by his fellow Mountain View County councillors to serve as the municipality’s reeve for another year. The election came during the county’s annual organizational meeting in council chambers on Oct. 23.
Counc. Angela Aalbers was also re-elected as deputy reeve during the same meeting.
The reeve is the principal spokesperson for the county and chairs council meetings, while the deputy reeve assumes the reeve’s roles when he or she is not available.
Beattie is the councillor for Division 4 and Aalbers for Division 5.
For his part, Beattie says he is honoured to again be elected reeve – it is his ninth year in the position – and looks forward to helping guide the county over the next 12 months.
“We are going to face some significant fiscal challenges,” said Beattie. “Certainly in this county we are going to be faced with some challenges that we are going to have to deal with.
“Within the organization itself we are going to be looking at ways to reduce costs and maybe put some projects on hold that we would have liked to have done.
“We recognize the there are some monetary items that we are going to have to deal with and all of us are going to have to look at that.”
Finances aren’t the only challenges facing the county, he said. “Rural crime hasn’t gone away. There are issues around policing and funding for policing,” he said.
Beattie commended his fellow councillors for their encouragement and confidence.
“The support of this council and the group that I’m working with and have been privileged to work with over the last nine years has been a really positive thing for me,” he said.
“For the county, I think we are lucky to have a council that represents the residents as best we can and we have a great working relationship.
“We don’t always agree on every item and we have good debates, but we always come out at the end and recognize that we are one council and we always support each other. To me, that is very good for our community and for the county.”
For her part, Aalbers says she is pleased to be re-elected to the deputy reeve position for a third year.
“It think it’s always an honour when your council appoints you to a position like this and I’m looking forward to supporting the council in the role of deputy reeve for another year,” said Aalbers.
“Our goal and our job is to maintain our service levels and to keep giving the community what they want and what they expect.”
The organizational meeting also saw councillors select which committees they will sit on for the next 12 months.
