Hanover Reeve Hopefuls Eye Wednesday Vote

Clif Bakx and Stan Toews

The two Reeve hopefuls in the Rural Municipality of Hanover have been going door-to-door the last number of weeks in anticipation of Wednesday's election.

Clif Bakx has gone on record stating if elected he will donate his first year of salary as Reeve towards recreation committees in Hanover. That amounts to about thirty-five thousand dollars. Bakx says recreation funding has come up many times as one of the issues he's hearing from ratepayers; especially in terms of how it's not keeping up with community growth. He notes each of the six wards has a recreation area and each ward will get its fair share of the thirty-five thousand dollars.

"I'd certainly like to see it pegged to programming or expanding the programming," notes Bakx. "But of course each one has different needs and requirements and we'll just make sure it gets spent properly."

"I don't need to comment on any other campaigns," says Stan Toews regarding the promise made by Bakx. Toews is running for re-election as Reeve for Hanover. "I'm focused on earning each and every last vote over the next two days. I'm grateful for the tremendous support I've encountered so far but again I will continue to work hard to meet as many residents one-on-one as I can right up until election day."

Toews says recreation is not what he's hearing from ratepayers in the municipality. In fact, Toews says a comprehensive recreation study was completed just over a year ago. He notes the results of that study suggests residents are satisfied with recreation.

But according to Bakx, while the population of Hanover has grown by thirty per cent over the last seven years, recreation facilities have not kept up with this growth. He notes there have been some new ones including a splash park and toboggan runs, but for the most part facilities are aging. And Bakx says communities are being urged to focus on new programming and future recreation projects at a time when they hardly have enough money to maintain what they currently operate.

Toews says there are three basic priorities that come up when going door-to-door. They are roads, drainage and taxes. According to Toews, residents of Hanover do not want their taxes to go up. When it comes to improvements to roads and drainage, Toews says he shares those same priorities.

Over the last number of years, council for the RM of Hanover has discussed the idea of establishing a fourth fire hall in the municipality. Hanover currently has three fire halls; in New Bothwell, Grunthal and Kleefeld. Bakx says without a doubt, a fourth hall is needed. He notes currently Blumenort and Mitchell are serviced by Steinbach Fire Department and there is also coverage in Hanover by Niverville Fire Department. Bakx says their three departments cover approximately three-quarters of the RM.

"The cost for the outside help is very much the same as our annual operating cost, not including what we put away for in future reserves," notes Bakx. "For what we are spending we at this point have good coverage, we'd just like to be a lot more responsible about where those dollars are going."

Bakx says though Blumenort would have a good pool of volunteers from which to build its fire department, the final decision on where to build a new hall will be a council decision.

"Council hasn't decided yet and until council makes that decision then we'll just leave it at that," agrees Toews. "At some time the fourth fire hall will be needed in Hanover," he says. "At this point no decision has been made but it will continue to be on the agenda."

Toews feels there are adequate dollars being spent on fire protection in Hanover. He agrees with Bakx that while it would be nice to keep all of these dollars within Hanover's fire departments, adding a fourth hall will add to their firefighting budget.

For complete local municipal election coverage, check out the Elections 2014 page.