ESTEVAN - Tony Sernick is looking forward to what will happen during the next four years when he is the mayor of Estevan.
Sernick won Estevan's mayoral race in the Nov. 13 civic election, finishing with 1,254 votes, ahead of Rebecca Foord, who had 1,108, and Zacch Vandenhurk, who received 317.
Joining Sernick on city council will be Councillors Shelly Veroba, Kirsten Walliser, Brian Johnson, Dave Elliott, Tom Mauss and Matthew Dubowski. (See Page A2 for more on the councillor race).
Sernick and Foord ran for mayor after each had one four-year term of experience as a city councillor. Vandenhurk was running for council for the first time.
Former mayor Roy Ludwig, who had been in the role since 2012 and a member of city council since 1994, announced last year he would not seek re-election. Sernick expects he'll spend a lot of time talking to Ludwig about what to expect in the coming weeks.
"We obviously had a brief conversation yesterday [on Nov. 13], and I was thinking 'Geez, I hope he doesn't change his phone number,'" Sernick said with a laugh. "As I was thinking that, he told me that 'Obviously, my phone is always on, and call me at any time.' And my response was 'I'll be calling lots'.
"It's a new job, it's a huge learning curve in the first year, and Roy will definitely be appreciated many times," said Sernick.
One trait that Sernick said he will take from Ludwig is the long-time mayor's love for the city and the job.
During the election campaign, people were telling Sernick about the importance of having a positive attitude. He recalled that when he joined council, the "elephant in the room" was the future of coal-fired power generation. The community knew adversity was coming with conventional coal electricity to be phased out by 2030.
"From four years ago to now, there's just a positive attitude. People want to move forward, and we don't want to live worrying about adversity all of the time. There is some optimism in the last couple of years. Our [provincial] government is saying we're going to use our coal assets until the SMRs come in. That's optimism."
People are also encouraged that Estevan will be the site of Saskatchewan's first SMRs should the project proceed.
Sernick expects he will spend a lot of time getting to know the new council. He's glad to have a couple of incumbents to work with in Veroba and Walliser, and Johnson was on council from 2000-2016. Sernick believes Johnson has likely forgotten more than Sernick knows about being a councillor.
"We'll be leaning on the three veterans," said Sernick.
He knows Elliott through their respective work in the oilfield, but he hasn't dealt with Johnson, Mauss or Dubowski before.
"Brian, Matthew and Tom will be new friendships," said Sernick.
Sernick recalls that when he was elected in 2020, there were four new councillors and everything worked out well.
"Hopefully everybody brings the attitude of it's a learning curve for everybody," said Sernick. "Obviously we campaigned individually, we're all there individually in a sense, but now that we're all in the [council] chamber, it's all about becoming a team and being united to further better our city."
He will miss seeing Foord on council. They had similar views on having a positive message during the campaign, and he suspects that is why the vote was so close.
"People were torn. Many people I talked to said 'I'm torn. I don't know who to talk to.' She definitely will be missed but I guarantee you it won't be the last time we hear of Rebecca Foord," said Sernick.
The new council is also going to be thrust into budget deliberations, which he said will be a learning process for him as well. Discussions on the fiscal plan are expected to start soon so the document can be finalized early in the new year.
"I remember my first budget, we got thrown into it at the same time of the year, and it was just a huge learning curve, and it was also a good time for the council, really, to get to know each other."
When spring arrives, the downtown revitalization project will be a priority once again.
"I definitely want to ensure, which I'm sure we do, that we have a good plan going forward, because Priority No. 1 is to get that downtown buttoned up and then energized," said Sernick.
Sernick thanked friends and family, supporters and others for making this happen.
"This is our victory. This isn't my victory. That's one thing I will take going forth."
He also thanked Foord and Vandenhurk for opposing him, and those who were involved with running the election.
A total of 2,695 votes were cast in the election. The main polling station, located at the Estevan Church of God, was expected to close at 8 p.m., but it ran out of ballots due to the number of voters, so those who were at the church to vote by 8 p.m. were still allowed to cast their ballot. The last vote was submitted at around 8:15 p.m.
Drive-thru polling stations were at the Estevan Fire Rescue Service building and Sudz Zone Car Wash on election day. The city also had advanced polls on Oct. 29 and 30, and a drive-thru polling station at the fire hall on Nov. 2. Mail-in ballots were also an option this year.
Candidates, their supporters and others were at city hall Wednesday evening to await the results. The unofficial results were fully tabulated just before 9 p.m., thanks to the electronic polling stations used by the city for elections since a 2014 byelection.
Sernick and the other members of council will be sworn in at a special meeting on Nov. 22. The first scheduled meeting for the new council is Nov. 25.
