Duane Hicks
With the deadline to file to run in the Oct. 27 municipal election set for Friday, the field of candidates running for council here has grown to 15 as of press time today—drawing incumbents and newcomers alike.
Among the more recent nominees are Wendy Brunetta, June Caul, Eric Fagerdahl, Harold Huntley, and incumbent Doug Kitowski.
Brunetta said she had been thinking about running for town council for quite a long time,
“I plan to retire in a couple of years so my plan was to run eventually,” she noted.
“It’s good timing.
“Being born and raised in Fort Frances, I just really think that I have some valuable input to give,” Brunetta added.
“It’s time for me to give back to my community.”
Brunetta, who is the administration human resources co-ordinator at Kenora-Rainy River Districts Child and Family Services, said economic development is a key aspect of her platform.
“Economic development is critical,” she stressed. “We’ve all seen what has happened since the closing of the mill.
“If we want opportunities for our children and our grandchildren to come back to our community, we need to focus on economic development.”
Huntley, a longtime trustee on the local separate school board, said he’s looking for a change of scenery.
“I’m retired and I’m pretty high-energy so I’m looking for something to occupy some time,” he explained.
Huntley said he’d be finishing 12 years as a separate school board trustee this fall, which followed his 33-year career in education, and that “it’s time for something different.”
“It was fun and it’s interesting but after a while you need a change,” he reasoned.
“I thought, ‘What else could I be?’
“I’m a director on [the] Northern Lights Credit Union and I’m finishing off 10 years in that capacity next April,” Huntley noted.
“I’ve been 15 years on the board of Columbus Place for seniors,” he added. “So I’ve done a lot of things to occupy myself.
“I figured I’ve still got four years of energy left so why don’t I try the town council thing?”
Huntley said there’s been a lot of public interest, himself included, in what’s going on at the municipal level over the past four years.
He said he has plenty of experience, including a Master’s degree in administration, and being a councillor would be a chance to use his skills for the benefit of the community.
Fagerdahl, who has worked in the retail trade here for more than 30 years, said he chose to put his name forward for town council because he is passionate about “helping to get Fort Frances back on its feet.”
“We are in a time of transition and need new and different ideas,” he stressed.
“My wife [Caren] and I have travelled to the east coast and stayed in many small towns that have wonderful presence but similar problems,” Fagerdahl noted.
“Across our country, there are many examples of one-industry towns that have lost their major employer and had to start again to build their economy.
“The successful among these could be a great resource to us,” he reasoned.
“I think that it would be important to have meetings with the people of Fort Frances to find out what they’re thinking and to get their ideas,” Fagerdahl added.
“We need to be good listeners but we also need to know when to act.”
Caul, a retired teacher and lifelong community volunteer with deep family roots here, said she is very interested in—and concerned about—the future of Fort Frances and its residents.
“I want to do as much as I can to help rebuild and restructure our tax base through careful and intelligent choices when spending taxpayers’ money,” she told the Times.
“Administration and council work for the taxpayers of Fort Frances, and need to include and respect residents’ feelings and ideas when making major decisions for the town,” she stressed.
“To keep Fort Frances a thriving community, it is absolutely essential for council to investigate all avenues and accept any viable business opportunities presented to the town.”
Caul said retaining young people and meeting the needs of seniors also are vital to the future of Fort Frances.
For his part, Kitowski, who has been on council since March, 2013 after being appointed to replace the late Sharon Tibbs, said he’s got plenty more work to do.
He would like to be re-elected to have the opportunity to see it through.
“There’s an awful lot of issues on the plate right now that’s 80 percent, 30 percent, 50 percent done, and I think I can contribute a fair amount,” the owner/operator of Doug Kitowski Trucking said Friday.
“I especially like working with the guys that are there,” he added. “We get along fairly well—there’s no friction and nobody’s beating up on one another.”
He also noted Mayor Roy Avis has been a very good teacher.
“There’s just a lot of things I’d like to see finished in the next few years,” Kitowski reiterated.
“We’ve got a problem with Resolute Forest Products, as everybody knows,” he noted.
“There’s going to be environmental issues, huge ones—the bark pile out there with all the contaminants, there’s ‘Lagoona Beach’ just north of where I am, we’ve got pipes all over the town that they put in years ago for the lagoon.
“We, the people, have to look after ourselves here because there’s nobody else protecting us right now,” Kitowski warned.
Forest tenure, the Point Park land negotiations, economic development, and water and sewer infrastructure also are crucial issues.
Kitowski said his time on council has featured a steep learning curve and he’s learned important lessons, including the fact there are checks and balances and no one individual or committee dictates what happens.
“It takes more time that I thought it was going to take to get something through, and that’s the democratic way,” he remarked.
“Everybody has a chance to voice their opinion.
“It’s a lot more thorough than I thought it was,” Kitowski added. “Nobody can walk in and say, ‘I want this done tomorrow afternoon.’
“I’m really sorry—it ain’t going to happen. It can’t.”
And it’s possible politics is contagious in the Kitowski family. His son, Bob, is running for city council in Kenora this fall while his daughter-in-law is running for the school board there.
Also running for town council here are incumbents John Albanese, Ken Perry, and Paul Ryan.
They are joined by newcomers Dan Belluz, Jennifer Greenhalgh, Ed Haglund, Jennifer Horton, Joe Kneisz, Scott Krienke-Turvey, and Charleen Mallory.
Mayor Roy Avis and Coun. Andrew Hallikas have filed to run for the mayor’s chair.
Candidates must submit their nomination to the town clerk by 2 p.m. this Friday (Sept. 12).
Mail-in ballots will be sent out to voters the week of Oct. 6.
