Picture Butte council gets busy

“I look forward to working with you to make Picture Butte an even better community,” said Mayor Wendy Jones last Monday night as she kicked off the start of a new four-year council term.

The new mayor, who previously served as a town councillor, took her oath of office along with returning town council member Henry de Kok and newly elected councillors Teresa Feist, Cathy Moore and Joe Watson.

The new council met Monday evening to be sworn in to their positions on council before tackling the annual organizational meeting, followed by a regular meeting of town council.

One of the first orders of business was to elect a deputy mayor from among the members of council. As they only other incumbent on council, Jones nominated de Kok and he was elected to fill the position until the 2014 organizational meeting.

Each member of council will also have an opportunity to serve as acting mayor should both the deputy mayor and mayor be unavailable to fill their roles with the town.

Coun. Feist will serve the first four-month term until February 2014 followed by Coun. Moore until June of 2014 and Coun. Watson until October 2014.

The new council now sits as four councillors and a mayor, down two councillors from the previous term. With this change, Jones proposed the former committee structure of Finance and Administration, Infrastructure and Community Development be replaced by council sitting as committee of the whole and meeting to discussion items in detail once a month before they are referred to the regular council agenda.

Committee appointments were also approved at the organizational meeting.

Mayor Jones will represent the town on the following committees: Green Acres Foundation, Mayors and Reeves of Southwestern Alberta and North County Health Foundation.

Deputy Mayor de Kok will sit on the following committees: Barons-Eureka-Warner FCSS, Municipal Planning Commission and the Family Friendly Business Community Committee.

Coun. Feist’s committee appointments will include: Municipal Planning Commission, Oldman River Regional Services Commission and the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board.

Coun. Moore will serve on the following committees: Picture Butte and District Chamber of Commerce, Community Futures Lethbridge Region, SouthGrow Regional Initiative, Picture Butte and District Transportation Society and Canadian Badlands Travel and Tourism Board.

Coun. Watson’s committee appointments include: Lethbridge Regional Waste Management Commission, Chinook Arch Regional Library, Picture Butte Municipal Library Board and the Walk on the Wild Side committee.

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