“I feel very humbled for winning,” newly re-elected Salmo mayor Diana Lockwood says. “I am very grateful to the community that they will allow me to finish the work we have started.”
Lockwood says her campaign was very stressful, but there is nothing she would change about her efforts if she ran in another four years.
“No, I would never change anything,” she says. “Getting out and talking to people, and listening to their concerns is paramount. We can’t always get everything done in four years.”
She says the biggest concern she heard from residents is they were unsure if they would speak their minds, because they felt as if their voices would be heard by council. Lockwood combated that by mentioning her door is always open for discussion.
“I have an open door policy,” she says. “I have in the past had an open line to council, and residents, and I intend on continuing that trend.”
With two newly elected council members, Lockwood says there not be anything “new” on the agenda but the priority is to finish the zoning bylaws that were started last term.
“When I was a councillor we started it,” she says. “Now that it has been so long we will have to look at it again and make sure it fits with our official community plan.”
Lockwood says with new councillors it might not get done right away, but it is on the plan.
“With the amount of learning it will take a bit before we can get this bylaw to first reading,” she says.
According to Lockwood a new program will start in November which is the Voyent Alert system.
“This system is currently being used by the RDCK as a disaster notification tool,” Lockwood says. “We are going to use it for more specific items like water breaks, and such.”
Lockwood will be joined on council by Todd Wallace, Jennifer Lins, Kenzie Neil and Melanie Cox. Only Lins is an incumbent.
Lockwood defeated challenger Jonathon Heatlie with 53 percent of the votes.