Recent History – 1999
Oct. 22, 1999, By Charity Wallace, Daily News Staff
Pouce Coupe will have a lot of choices for council this year. With two mayor candidates and eight council candidates and only half as many positions residents will have quite a choice to make.
Aylffe Hulbert and Jill Wonnacott are the two mayoral candidates in the region.
Aylffe Hulbert is a retiree and says he has the time and ideas to put into the position.
“I would like to see a school go ahead and keep my eye on the taxes and finish two tree planting projects that were started,” he says. “Independence from Dawson Creek is another thing I would like to see done.”
Jill Wonnacott is currently a councillor in Pouce Coupe and decided to run for mayor so she could have the opportunity to help finish what the last council started.
“We got an extra bit of money and we are doing good things with it,” she says. “I hope to see the completion of the village office, do some road work and more land development.”
Besides being a councillor, Wonnacott is a member of the Dawson Creek Chamber of Commerce and on the library committee among other things.
The four councillor positions are being pursued by eight candidates during the election.
Doreen Atkinson runs A & D Office Services, and accounting office in Dawson Creek. If elected she hopes to do a number of things including cleaning up the village.
“As you drive into the village you notice that grass is very high, the parks are in terrible shape, not the big park, the in town parks,” Atkinson explains, “I would also like to see Pouce build its own lagoon.”
Doug Ezeard thinks that it is his duty to be involved with the place that he lives.
“I hope to work toward keeping Pouce Coupe clean and safe, develop land and attract businesses as well as keeping low taxes and water prices,” Ezeard says. “Children should be able to go out and have a place to go instead of just hanging out on street corners.”
Ezeard drives a school bus, is a self-employed mechanic, plays in a band and works at his church.
Del Folk was straight forward and to the point with his hopes for Pouce Coupe.
“I just want to help out,” he says. “I want to continue low taxes and try to get water bills lower.” Folk is an innkeeper at the Hart Hotel.
Keri Gorek just wanted to help out in her community.
“I’d like to see Pouce be a nice little place to live,” she says. “I would like to help in continuing the work that council is doing.”
Gorek works at the Dawson Co-op when she isn’t campaigning for office.
Laura Hamann is a home based business owner that thinks that she has lived in Pouce Coupe long enough to understand what is best for the community.
“I’ve worked for the village and I enjoyed it thoroughly and I would like to be involved,” she says. “I would like to see more street paving done and develop more things for the children of Pouce to do, such as recreation programs.”
Peter Kut says that the village needs to be rejuvenated, people should be encouraged to move to Pouce Coupe and more money needs to be obtained from the government.
“Something should be done for the children so they have somewhere to go,” he says, “I would also like to see more area open up and advertise so more people would move to Pouce Coupe.
“I want to request more money from the province, there are ways to approach the government to get the money.”
Kut has had prior council experience in Alberta before moving to Pouce Coupe, he is semi-retired but participates in many events.
Donna White would like to offer her experience to the new council.
“I’ve done it for six years already and most of the people currently running haven’t been on council before,” says White. “I would like to continue on working to improve the Village of Pouce Coupe.”
Besides sitting on council, White works as a clerk at the Pouce Coupe General Store.
Doyle McNabb, who is also running for council, was unavailable for comment.
With all the candidates running this should be one election that offers a lot of choice to Pouce Coupe residence.