FORT FRANCES—The only contested seat for the Rainy River District School Board on Monday was won by Glenda Belluz, who garnered 360 votes to Barbara Everett’s 259, according to unofficial results.
“I was excited,” Belluz said Tuesday upon learning the outcome. “I’m glad it turned out the way it did. But Barb would have been good, too.”
This was the first time Belluz had run for public office, although her husband, Jim, was re-elected as a councillor with the Township of La Vallee on Monday.
“My husband’s done it for a few years now,” Belluz noted.
She said she was interested in running for the Alberton-La Vallee seat three years ago, but decided not to run when the incumbent, Martin Darrah, threw his hat in the ring.
When Darrah decided not to seek re-election this time around, Belluz decided to go for it.
“I said to myself, ‘It’s now or never,’” she laughed.
As a school bus driver, Belluz said she felt she already was well-known in the community.
“I didn’t campaign or anything like that,” she said. “They knew what I was like.”
While she’s never held public office, Belluz served on the executive of the Emo-Devlin-Barwick Minor Hockey Association as secretary for several years, and feels that experience will serve her in good stead in her new role as a trustee.
“I’m looking forward to getting to the meetings and meeting the other people,” she said. “It’ll be overwhelming probably the first few times.”
Belluz will attend trustee orientation later this month along with Donna Dittaro, who was acclaimed as one of the two Fort Frances trustees on the board.
Dan Belluz was acclaimed to the other Fort Frances seat.
Also acclaimed as trustees were Ron McAlister (representing Rainy River, Dawson, Lake of the Woods, and Morley) and Margaret Heyens (representing Emo, Chapple, and Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls).
The First Nation representative is James Leonard while the board’s student trustee is Jenna Nowak.
The board will hold its inaugural meeting Tuesday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. at Robert Moore School.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
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