Lifelong M.L. resident seeking city council seat

Richard Levesque’s been a lifelong resident of Meadow Lake, serving even as city manager. Now, post-retirement, he’s decided to seek a seat in city council.

Levesque first started working for Meadow Lake in 1981. He began as assistant administrator before taking on the manager duties in 1991 and holding the position until he retired. Since retiring, he’s served as interim city manager twice, most recently when current manager, Diana Burton, went on maternity leave in late 2015.

“Meadow Lake is a great community,” Levesque said. “It’s had slow but constant growth which I think is better than a boom and bust situation.”

If elected, Levesque wants to support increasing the budget for road and sidewalk maintenance and replacement. He said he’s also in support of a property tax increase freeze for two years after the reassessment in 2017.

“We’ve had a lot of major projects and a lot of costs to cover, so I don’t have any issues with the tax increases over the years but people on fixed incomes and people who have lower incomes that haven’t increased much over the years, need a break from the increases,” he said.

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When Levesque first started working for the city in 1981, most of the community wasn’t paved and there was some serious water and sewer issues.

“I think we’ve come a long way and I think we should be proud of the community we’ve built over the years,” he said.

He may be retired now, but Levesque said he wants to run for council because of his interest in municipal politics and the desire to be more involved with the community.

He said his knowledge of the city will be a benefit to him heading into the Oct. 26 election.

“I know the community inside and out, I know most of the infrastructure issues it has, I’ve dealt with most of the major projects over the years and I think I can be a bank of knowledge on why certain things are done the way they’re done,” Levesque said.

Voters cast their ballots at the Civic Centre on Oct. 26.

Besides Levesque’s name, incumbents Curtis Paylor, Kim Chiverton, Conrad Read and Merlin Seymour will be on the ballot along with Tom Harrison and Glen Winkler.

Colton Swiderski is meadowlakeNOW’s municipal affairs, crime and court, health and education reporter. He can be reached at cswiderski@jpbg.ca or tweet him @coltonswiderski.