It was a game time decision for Stoney Stoltenberg.
After no one put their name forward to run for the director of Area A in the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako, the nomination deadline was extended and just before the extension ran out, Stoltenberg threw his name into the hat.
The 79-year-old was the director for two terms, two terms ago and said he came out of retirement to make sure someone was in the position who cared about the area.
If no one ran, the board would appoint someone and Stoltenberg said the area might be represented by someone who didn’t really want the position, or even live in the region.
“I’m running to protect the interests of the peoples in area A,” he said. “I don’t bring any baggage with me. Because I don’t owe my allegiance to anybody. The only people that I owe my allegiance to are my constituents, and those are the people who live in area A and that’s how I look at it.”
READ MORE: Nominations close for the municipal election
He added it was sad that no one wanted to run in the region.
“In all the way society is gone with cell phones and internet and everything else, it is almost hard to get people that are willing to do any type of community service,” he noted.
He doesn’t have any big projects or ideas in mind that he wants to accomplish but is going to sit down with the current director, Mark Fisher in the coming days.
“I want to get together with Mark and talk about the projects that he’s got on the go so that we can make this a nice smooth transition. And then once I’m back on the board again, we’ll come up with some type of an agenda.”
Stoltenberg will be acclaimed on Oct. 15.
@MariscaDekkema
marisca.bakker@interior-news.com
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