The County of Vermilion River (CVR) is under new leadership.
A new reeve and deputy reeve were elected at the organizational meeting on Oct. 24.
Marty Baker is the new reeve and Leslie Cusack is deputy reeve.
“It’s going to be an exciting year and I’m new to the job, so it’ll be interesting. I’ve lived in the county all my life—raised on the family farm out here. South of Lloydminster, in the Rivercourse area is where I grew up and continue to live today,” said Baker, who was elected as Division 1 councillor in 2017 and re-elected in 2021.
“Our top priority for council right now is our 2024 budget which we’re working on right now. It’s a real challenge trying to manage the budget and the service levels in light of all these drastically increasing costs,” said Baker.
“We have shrinking oil revenues to do with the oilfield. There’s a lot of challenges, but we should be able to come out of it with our service levels intact and keep up with these major programs that involve our roads and infrastructure.”
The CVR is a large county with many roads to maintain, and Baker says roads are the number one concern he has heard from residents in his years on council.
“The county has over 5,000 km of roads that we have to take care of, so gravelling, grading, paving, probably pretty soon snow removal programs are really important to our residents, so that’s where we get the calls and that’s … the challenges we face when we come to budget,” said Baker.
“It’s a real juggling act for our public works department but I think they do a great job to manage that entire infrastructure.”
The CVR is holding an open house at the Islay Hall on Nov. 22 at 6 p.m. to give county residents a chance to meet the new reeve and deputy reeve.
“It’s a great opportunity for the residents to come in and check out our programs, our services. You can have one on one conversations with councillors and staff,” said Baker.
“All the departments will be set up there and it’s a real easy-going type of atmosphere. They’ll be showing all their programs, plus you can ask your direct questions too.”
Baker says the open houses also give council members and county staff a chance to hear from the residents.
“We had one in the spring in Kitscoty and we’re trying to spread them around. We’re doing two of these a year,” said Baker.
“Hopefully we can get a good turnout and be able to hear what people are thinking … they (CVR residents) can share their thoughts and that helps us out too—when we are doing budgets and providing these services as well.”
In 2024, the CVR will celebrate its 60th anniversary, as well as the 45th anniversary of providing county-owned natural gas throughout the area.
