Heather Wright/The Independent

Petrolia Councillor Debb Pitel has won a seat on Dawn-Euphemia Council.

Pitel chose to run in the municipality where she lives this time around. She polled second in voting with 402 ballots cast for her.

Jason Meyer had the highest vote count with 420. Incumbents Ann Gray and Paul LeBoeuf also are returning to council.

Pitel joined the candidates at the Dawn-Euphemia fire hall Monday to hear the results. She admits she was a bitnervous
waiting for the results, but “the atmosphere was great, and most of the candidates were there. The candidates that were re-elected, it was nice watching them. They have a great rapport, and you know it’s exciting to see the group of them that I’ll be working with,” she tells The Independent.

Pitel, like many candidates, heard from voters they wanted change. But she believes “the conversation isn’t that they want change, it’s that they just want another set of eyes or another opinion or background to add to what they have to make it better.”

Pitel fit that bill. In a farming community, she’s not a farmer, although she is a horsewoman. And she believes her activism engaging young people in Petrolia and around mental health concerns may have been attractive to voters.

And her experience around Petrolia’s council table will also help, even if the Dawn-Euphemia council is less formal than the town’s.

“The camaraderie is there, and I think that starts with respect. And we’ll see how it goes and continues to move forward. But yeah, being the new girl is always challenging,” she says.

Mayor Al Broad is pleased with the results of the vote, mixing in someone new with incumbent councillors.

“We got the three incumbents there. We’ve got the one new one who does have experience, and I’m quite sure that the next four years we’ll get along just fine, and hopefully make everything work,” he says.

Broad says while they’ll get along and work together, it won’t necessarily be an easy year. The mayor, who was acclaimed, is concerned about the affect of the rising cost of fuel on the township’s operations.

“Our road budget is our biggest single item on our budget. We know diesel fuel’s gone through the roof along with everything else. How we’re going to look after that many roads to the quality that we’re accustomed to with limited dollars,” he says.

“We know times are tough out there for everybody. We just got 11 per cent increase on our policing cost. We just
know that the budget’s going to have a very difficult time to keep the increases at the minimum.”

And Broad doesn’t expect there will be any additional levels of government. “I see municipalities asking for more money, but I don’t see them doling out any extra money.

“It sure doesn’t look like to me there’s a whole lot of room to give out any extra money.”