Get to know your ward: Ward 8

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This article was published 22/10/2022 (1143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ward 8 is the southernmost electoral ward in the City of Brandon.

That honour used to belong to Ward 7, formerly Linden Lanes.

However, when the city revised ward boundaries earlier this year, the ward formerly know as Richmond Ward was given that piece of land extending south into land that was annexed from the RM of Cornwallis.

It also lost a piece of land that extended from First Street to Ninth Street to Ward 10, formerly Green Acres.

In 2014, Ron Brown beat out Ray Berthelette to replace the outgoing Stephen Montague on Brandon City Council. Four years later, Brown won re-election by a margin of just six votes in the “Battle of the Rons” against Ron Cayer, a previous two-term councillor.

For more than a year now, residents of the ward haven’t been represented by a councillor after Brown took a medical leave for a condition that requires him to undergo dialysis.

Brown is not running for re-election and two men are facing off in the race to replace him.

The first man is Michael McCormick, the director of physical plant at Brandon University who is making his first run at politics.

His opponent is Jason Splett, a territory manager with Corteva Agriscience who has made previous runs at both city council and the Brandon School Division’s Board of Trustees.

For this profile, we asked both men this question: Because of the illness of the previous incumbent in Ward 8, residents have lacked a direct voice on city council for more than a year. What is the biggest lingering concern you will address for ward residents if elected?

Here are their responses in alphabetical order by last name.

According to McCormick, traffic issues are at the forefront of the minds of his potential constituents.

“The biggest challenge I have heard from Ward 8 residents would be road safety; whether that be infrastructure repairs, parking concerns, snow clearing or traffic volumes,” he wrote in an email.

“If I were to be elected, this would be one of the first action items that I would take on as a challenge to establish better emergency road care and overall traffic signage, and to create control points that would mitigate the traffic volumes on our residential streets, while still providing main hub access to our local schools.”

To accomplish this, McCormick proposes to limit parking on side streets to just one side of the street, complete urgent pothole repairs and to create safer pick-up and drop-off areas for Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School and Maryland Park School.

Going forward, he said he’d also like council to have a better redundancy plan in the case of long-term absenteeism. He also said residents will likely have concerns going forward with the city’s southern expansion plans and its knock-on effects like inreased traffic.

Splett said he’s also heard concern from residents regarding traffic and pedestrian safety, but he’s also heard about lingering water drainage issues.

“People are concerned about vehicles speeding on certain roads within the ward,” Splett wrote in an email.

“They are also concerned about the lack of crosswalks, lights, and garbage bins on the walking paths. The obvious concern is lack of a pedestrian pathway on Lyndale Drive from the south side of the cemetery to the Patricia [Avenue] mailboxes and lots of foot and bicycle traffic in this area.

“Secondly, Water has also been mentioned while visiting with residents of the ward. There is drainage work (SE Drainage Project) underway to help correct issues from Lyndale drive eastward towards the crocus pond, but until work is completed and tested it will still be on people’s minds.”

He added that while doorknocking, he’s also heard residents bring up the wastewater infrastructure upgrades planned for southwest Brandon. Communication between the city and residents for the project, he said, is paramount so people understand what is going on.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

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