Plympton-Wyoming has declared the seat once occupied by Councillor Ron Schenk vacant.

Schenk passed away in May after a battle with cancer. He had been a councillor in the community for 14 years.

Chief Administrative Officer, Carolyn Tripp, says when a sitting councillor dies, the Municipal Act says council must declare the seat vacant in two weeks. But it doesn’t have to appoint someone right away. Council has 60 days to decide whether to hold a by-election or appoint a member to fill the seat. That could be done by selecting a candidate from the last election with the most votes or taking applications.

Tripp says since Plympton-Wyoming was formed in 2001, there have been four instances where a seat was declared vacant. “In all cases that I am aware of, they went with the person who had the highest number of votes from any position…regardless of the position they ran for.”

Tripp says if council does that again, Ben Dekker would be the person appointed since he had most votes in the 2018 election.