Lyonel Doherty, Times Chronicle
Terry Schafer is the new (but not so new) voice on Oliver town council following today’s election that saw all three incumbents voted back in.
Schafer garnered 483 votes, Dave Mattes attracted 541, Aimee Grice drew in 492, and Petra Veintimilla topped the poles with 655.
Candidate Kelly long secured 395 votes, while Keith Quesnelle received 266. Charles Simpson finished with 96.
There was no mayoral race as Martin Johansen was unopposed.
Schafer admitted he has mixed feelings about the results and “almost feels bad” because this will be his fifth term on council.
“I was really hoping at least one new person would have got on, but Kelly Long got good numbers for a newbie, and I know she’ll get in next time.”
Schafer said it would have been wrong for him to waste his experience.
“I’m looking forward to the community engagement. I long for it, and I know I can contribute.”
The former Area C director said he has a sore foot from all that door knocking and only had half a dozen election signs put out.
Veintimilla said she is very excited with the results.
“It gives me confidence that the direction that we’ve been going is the direction that the community wants us to go. I love this community . . I want it to be a place that we all get to grow together in.”
Veintimilla said the results mean good opportunities for the electorate moving forward.
Grice said council had a productive last term, which is reflected in the results.
“It didn’t seem like there was a lot of excitement this election so I’m hoping that’s because people were happy with how things went the last term.”
Grice said she is relieved the election is over and is anxious to get back to work.
Mattes said he was really pleased to see the number of candidates in Oliver, noting that two of them (Long and Quesnelle) showed really strong for their first try. “They did a great job and worked very hard.”
Mattes said he would like to think that he has done a lot of good work in the last four years.
“I had a lot of signs out in a lot of strategic locations like next to mailboxes where people go every day. So I was looking for name recognition and I think I got that.”
