A local volunteer has thrown his hat into the ring for city council. Darcy Zaharia has announced his intention to run for a council seat.
Zaharia wants a council seat for the same reason he volunteers in the community, whether through Yorkton Minor Football or other local groups.
“I care about the community, I’m very proud of Yorkton, and I just think this will allow me to do this on a bigger scale.”
He also looks at a council seat as a chance to get more deeply involved in the operations of the city, and better able to understand why certain choices are made and be better to explain the priorities in the city’s operation.
“When someone says, why are my roads not cleaned after a snowfall, these ones are and these ones aren’t, I want to learn the logistics behind most of the decisions that are made. Hopefully I will have a fresh perspective on that and can contribute to make Yorkton better.”
Roads are going to be the big issue for Yorkton going forward, Zaharia believes, as well as finding ways to attract new businesses to the community. He also sees protective services as something which the city needs to examine more closely.
“I feel I have a different perspective on that because I was a volunteer firefighter for quite a few years and I was an auxiliary RCMP member for quite a few years as well. So I understand the importance of it, and I hope I can give a bit of a different perspective on it as well.”
Describing himself as committed to improving the community, Zaharia hopes that voters can see that he loves the city and wants to do anything he can to improve it for the people who live here.
“The people who know me know I love our community, and as it stands now I do quite a bit for our community. I have a young family, my kids are three and six, I’m here for the long haul. I couldn’t wait to move back here and did so in 2000... When I do something I do the best I can do, I hope that shines through for the people I know, and for the people I don’t know I hope they learn it.”
The reason for a run for council in 2016, Zaharia says, is because he has wanted to get on council for a few years, and he did not want to wait any longer to take a run.
It’s a large field running for council this year, and Zaharia believes it’s a sign that there is a real desire in Yorkton to see some fresh faces joining council. Zaharia hopes that he is one of those fresh faces.
“With the number of people throwing their hat in the ring, for me, what I take for that is that people want some kind of change, a lot of people want to voice their opinions and concerns, and I’m one of them. I want to bring my experiences, whether it’s work or volunteer opportunities, bring that as a fresh perspective to council.”
