Rick Popadynetz going for Taber mayor’s seat

Rick Popadynetz has added his name to the list of mayoral hopefuls for the Town of Taber. Popadynetz was born in Taber, and is a past President of the Chamber of Commerce. He has also worked as a councillor for the town.

He says the biggest problem the town is facing is that there hasn’t been enough promotion and growth within Taber, “We need to come up with a Team Taber of local people who are committed to the town, and are going to help grow the community. We need to go to Edmonton and Ottawa to promote our community. We’ve got the big five products of corn, peas, carrots, onions, and potatoes in our area. We also have sugar beets. Taber is the central hub of the Premier Food Corridor, because of the irrigation and the land that we have in the area. We really need to promote that on a global level, and not just a provincial and federal level.”

Popadynetz has seven main platforms, including the improvement of roads. “Our roads are in disrepair. There’s no traffic flow plan of where the traffic’s supposed to flow for the future for bus routes, public transit. We need to come up with some sort of a plan in the next four years so that the town can expand and grow.”

His second campaign platform is recreation. “If you look at our fields, a lot of our fields are empty. We’ve lost the war to video games. Kids aren’t playing in the fields anymore. We need to get the kids back in the fields and provide them with sports to play.”

Number three is approachability. “Approachability of the town to seniors. We need to make the mayor approachable. We need to make people approachable to come to our community and have discussion with seniors, and citizens of the community.”

The fourth is economic development. “A lot of home based businesses don’t have the opportunity to grow. Shop rentals are over $1,000. There’s that disconnect of the $400-500 rental so that they can move from their home base to a small shop or a small garage and still be able to provide the same services they did prior as their home base business.

Number five is a business recovery program. “Out of COVID, we need to work with the provincial and federal government to come up with a solid plan to help the businesses that struggled during the pandemic. Working well with Community Futures and our Taber Chamber of Commerce to be able to grow these businesses.”

His sixth campaign promise is for youth initiatives. “We need to promote youth programs. We really need to expand on our skate park. We need to provide new things and new entertainment for kids so they can get out of the basement of their parents house and actually do things in the community.”

His last platform is promoting Taber on a global level.

The municipal election will take place on October 18th.