Former Councillor Dick DeRyk seeking a return

Dick DeRyk has announced his intention to seek a seat on Yorkton Council.

This would be return to Council for DeRyk, as he was amember of Yorkton city council for 13 years - various terms between 1987 and 2009.

“I strongly believe that we have not seen the last of the widespread impact of Covid-19 on our lives,” he said in a release sent to local media Sunday. “Experience on council, experience in business, experience in organizations and experience in Yorkton’s community life will matter greatly as we face the next four years.

“Community life goes far beyond city services and the local economy. As a municipality we have paid scant attention to people and family issues like housing and food security, both of which are being exacerbated by the pandemic. Those have been left to volunteers, churches and service organizations, but as a city and a council we need to recognize that without a healthy labour force and families, other aspects of our community – economic and social – cannot flourish.”

On DeRyk’s election website www.yorktonvotes2020.cahe goes into greater detail, citing his experience as a key.

“Hard work is important. But so is experience -- experience living and working in Yorkton, experience in business, experience on city council, experience with major organizations, experience with life and all that it gives us, or takes from us,” he writes.

“This is a time for experience.”

Again noting COVID DeRyk stated, “most of us -- businesses and families and organizations -- can survive a major event like this for a few months. It's now been seven months. How will we manage if there is a second wave, or a first real wave in our city?

“If it takes longer than expected for a medical solution like a vaccine?

“If the new normal is nothing like the normal we left behind in March of 2020?

“How will the city manage if more businesses fail?

“If more vacant properties cannot pay their taxes?

“If more of our friends and colleagues and family members find their jobs are no longer there, or have changed drastically?”

How Council charts the City through such times will be critical, sugDeRyk.

“We are in unknown territory,” he wrote.

“There is a real possibility that will not change in the next year or more. There is a real possibility that we as a community, and as a city, will need to re-examine our services, our activities, our finances, our expectations.”

That is where DeRyk says experience will matter.

“Experience, willingness to be honest about our situation, willingness to rethink our wants, our needs and our priorities will be necessary, as will dedication,” he said. “I offer that to you. Then maybe I'll retire after we have succeeded together.”

DeRyk moved to Yorkton in 1967 to work at my first job -- reporter for the old Yorkton Enterprise weekly newspaper. He and wife Faye been married 52 years, and have two children, eight grand-children and two great-grandsons.