A local man who was unable to get enough votes the previous two municipal election is going for a third try.
Dave McPherson, who achieved 235 votes during the Town of Ponoka election in 2013, announced his intention to run for a councillor spot again this time around.
McPherson doesn’t feel the previous council did a bad job, but believes more needs to be done to bring people and business to Ponoka.
“I want to see a cleaner Ponoka with all of the garbage picked up. There is a lot in the ditches and doing that would make the town more attractive to those passing through,” he said.
Part of drawing more visitors and making Ponoka a better, more attractive community to live in is by ensuring the people have things to do and places to spend their money.
McPherson agrees some of the ideas that are either underway or are still floating around has Ponoka heading in the right direction.
“I support the new Community Learning Centre partnership. I also support building a new RCMP detachment and constructing a fieldhouse at the recreation complex,” he stated.
“We need that kind of infrastructure, that type of improvement to our recreational facilities to give people a reason to move to Ponoka.
“Now, we may have to raise taxes to do all of this and I don’t object to that.”
He added he wants to see the downtown revitalization project move forward at a faster pace than has been outlined.
“We need to look at bringing in more specialty stores and doing something different to attract business downtown and help make people be able to shop local,” McPherson said.
“As a town, one way could be by being more proactive in helping people that want to start up a business through providing tax incentives for a short period. That may also help businesses better afford the rents downtown and start to fill up all of those vacant storefronts.”
With all of this, McPherson believes the town and Ponoka County need to stop butting heads and work together on solutions.
“The town and county need to reconcile and collaborate more,” he said.
“I also think we need to consolidate the fire departments into one, but not at the expense of putting people’s lives in jeopardy. We all need to work together on these things.
“I want to see Ponoka grow more and become a more attractive community.”
The deadline to file nomination papers is Sept. 18 with the election set for Oct. 16.