The fields have been finalized for the upcoming civic and school board elections.
The deadline to file nomination forms passed at 4 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, and there will be elections in both the city and the rural municipality (RM) of Estevan.
Voters who live in the city of Estevan will go to the polls to determine the next mayor and councillors. Incumbent mayor Roy Ludwig has been challenged by James Halladay, who ran against Ludwig for mayor four years ago, and first-time candidate Rhyan Hagel.
As for councillor, all five incumbents – Greg Hoffort, Brian Johnson, Trevor Knibbs, Dennis Moore and Kevin Smith – are seeking another term. Travis Frank, Cameron Robock, Shelly Veroba and Lyle Yanish have also filed papers for councillor.
Robock and Veroba have run for councillor in the past, while Frank and Yanish are first-time candidates.
Six of the nine councillor candidates will be elected.
Ironically, there were also three people vying for mayor and nine running for councillor in the last civic election in 2012.
In the RM of Estevan, there will be an election for reeve. Incumbent Kelly Lafrentz has been challenged by Terry Keating and Janet Severson.
The RM will not need to have elections for Divisions 1, 3 and 5, as those were decided by acclamation. Incumbent councillors Lorne Jahn (Division 1), Dennis Blackburn (Division 3) and Del Block (Division 5) will be on the RM council for another four years.
Divisions 2, 4 and 6 will be decided in 2018.
As for the school boards, incumbent Pam Currie and newcomer Shari Sutter filed their nomination forms to be the Estevan trustees for the South East Cornerstone Public School Division, and have been acclaimed to the positions.
The other incumbent trustee for Estevan, Janet Foord, has retired from the school board.
In the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division, the two incumbent Estevan trustees, Bev Hickie and Karen Melle, filed their nomination papers and have also been acclaimed.
Candidates had until 4 p.m. on Thursday to officially withdraw. None of the mayoral or councillor candidates withdrew.
The civic and school board elections will take place on Oct. 26.
Next week’s edition of the Estevan Mercury and Southeast Lifestyles will have more on the elections.
