ESTERHAZY — Mayor of Esterhazy since 2018, Grant Forster would like to retain that spot, at least for one more round. Forster is no stranger to the town council table, having served for nine years back in the 1990s in addition to his time as mayor. One big draw compelling him to continue is to see some major projects over the past years come to fruition.
“There’s some unfinished business that I want to see finish up, most importantly the hospital,” he said. “I want to continue the efforts to get that hospital secured and built. I’ve been heavily involved in that from the time I sat in the mayor’s chair and was brought in on the health stuff. So to me, that’s the main reason that I decided to go again.
“I’m invested in it and want to make sure that it follows through,” Forster continued. “And we’ve done so much work to this point in time with it, that it’d be a shame to just step away and let somebody else have to come in and pick things up and take over from there.”
One major priority going into the election and beyond is the infrastructure in town.
“There’s a lot of things that we’re going to have to do to be able to maintain what we have and where we’re going,” Forster said. “We’ve got old infrastructure and we need to take a look at where we’re at and develop a plan of how we’re going to bring it back up to date.”
He stressed the importance of proper planning, using the example of street repairs and paving projects that require taking a look at underground infrastructure before pursuing further work.
“We looked at our street repairs this year, our paving projects, and we wanted to ensure that we weren’t going to put a bunch of paving down, and then have to dig it up again fairly quickly because the water lines decided to break in that area,” Forster explained. “We’re making sure we’re going in, checking the water lines out, making sure that they’re okay, and fixing them before we pour a bunch of money into pavement. So we’ve started that. I just want to make sure that we continue that and have a plan going forward.”
All these repairs are not going to be without cost, but Forster sees the necessary upgrades as a way to ensure the town remains for future generations.
“The unfortunate part is that it’s going to be expensive, and we’re just going to need to be smart on how we do this and try to continue operating the way that people expect us to operate and at the same time be able to get this stuff done,” Forster said of the delicate balancing act of maintenance while big ticket items like a new hospital and water treatment plant continue at the same time.
“We need a vision for the future,” said Forster. “Everybody says that, but it’s getting to be a reality for us.”
Forster is busy with his council work, and is a member of the local Wildlife Federation.
