Rick Fettis (Submitted/Rick Fettis)

By Cam Lee

Melfort council candidate

Fettis looking to bring accounting experience to Melfort City Council

Nov 12, 2024 | 10:34 AM

A first-time candidate is eager for an opportunity to serve on Melfort City Council.

Rick Fettis, who owns an accounting office in Melfort, as well as offices in Nipawin and Porcupine Plain, said he enjoys following municipal politics and would enjoy serving the community.

Fettis and his wife have lived in Melfort for 21 years and are raising four daughters. He is on the Melfort Multi-K board and is involved with the Melfort Marlins. Fettis also plays adult rec hockey in the community.

With so much time around the pool with the Marlins, Fettis knows the Palace is showing its age.

“The Northern Lights Palace is (over 32) years old and as per the feasibility study, needs over $15 million in repairs and upgrades in the arena and pool area,” said Fettis. “Obviously the city doesn’t have $15 million to do all those repairs at once, so I would like to be involved in the future planning of these important city facilities.”

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Aging infrastructure has been a major topic in this campaign, and Fettis said all municipalities are struggling with old water and sewer systems. Melfort is also upgrading its landfill that was nearing its end and not up to new environmental regulations.

“As a community we need these upgrades, and we need to make sure that catastrophic failures like (what) happened in Calgary don’t happen here,” Fettis explained. “The planning needs to be progressive, ready for any provincial or federal grants, not just reactive, and hopefully will result in a smooth upgrade process.”

Fettis said the city needs to be very considerate of inflationary issues during the budgeting process. He said inflation has created problems for many Canadians, especially those on fixed incomes like seniors.

Should Fettis be elected, he said he looks forward to the first budgetary sessions so he can compare the private business of creating a lean budget to the public municipal government process.

Election day is tomorrow, Nov. 13.

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Cam.lee@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @northeastNOW_SK