Cheryl Christian elected mayor in West St. Paul

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This article was published 05/11/2018 (2821 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

 

West St. Paul has a new mayor.

 

Cheryl Christian now sits on the West St. Paul mayor’s office as the RM’s second female mayor. She received 1,528 votes compared to incumbent Bruce Henley, who received 1,121 votes.

“This tells me that our residents are ready for change and they really do believe that we can do better and they are excited for a new mayor and a new council going forward,” she said.

Christian was a councillor in Ward 1 for four years and said she will be working very hard to create a respectful work environment and listen to residents. 

Christian’s biggest concern was open and fair government decision-making. Some of the changes she will be introducing immediately are changing council meeting times so more residents can attend and bringing back question period.

“I’m really excited to bring residents back to the council chambers and to include them in the decisions we are making in West St. Paul (through) open houses, surveys, and focus groups,” she continued. “Where do you see our community going together?”

Residents supported her plans for well managed and well-planned growth and development in West St. Paul and she said they are excited about the opportunities offered for commercial businesses, but they want to know what’s going on and want to have a say in the development that’s happening.

Christian said the new council shares similar concerns and wants to go forward with more open decision-making.

“We are elected as leaders, but we are here to represent our residents. It’s important that we make these decisions together. It has to be open so that there’s trust. They’ve given us their trust, and it’s a huge responsibility and when we are open in our decision-making…they know that we are looking out for their best interest.

“We are not always going to agree as a council and residents aren’t always going to agree with the decisions that we make, but if that process is open and they know why those decisions were being made and they had input in that process, then it’s easier to get behind the changes.”

Christian will be working with elected councillors Eleanor Link in Ward 1, Giorgio Busceti in Ward 2, Dorothy Kleiber in Ward 3 and Stan Parag in Ward 4 and said she thinks they are going to make a great team.

Council still hasn’t had time to meet and discuss all the concerns they’ve heard during their campaigns, so the first thing Christian will do is to go over those concerns with council and build a plan on how they are going to address them.

“Elections are an amazing opportunity to reset, and our priorities can be set by what we each heard in our different areas,” she added. “One of the biggest things I think we need is some strategic plan…so that residents know what we are doing, developers know what we are doing, businesses know what we are doing.”

Regarding infrastructure, Christian said several residents want wastewater right away and still store their sewer in holding tanks, which is costly.

“Part of our planning going forward is to ensure we got a plan for which areas get wastewater and to continue to ask for funding. We need a plan of where that wastewater and the lines are, so that’s a big project and we need to keep that moving.”