ESTEVAN - Zacch Vandenhurk is going for the top job in his first attempt at running for Estevan city council.
Vandenhurk filed his nomination papers for mayor last Wednesday. Coun. Rebecca Foord and Coun. Tony Sernick have also submitted their forms in the race to replace Mayor Roy Ludwig, who announced last year he wouldn't seek re-election.
Vandenhurk said he's running for mayor because he always wanted to challenge himself, and he has looked at different aspects of the job.
"I would say the main goal is that people are ready for a change, and when I say that people are ready for change, there's a lot of frustration with the current federal government that we have, so, in a community of our size, we have to have somebody who can actually make the people feel a little more secure in where they are."
Decisions at the federal level are impacting communities more than expected, he said, causing people to lose trust and faith in politics and leadership. If people vote for him, they should feel confident they have a safe place to live and a secure location that won't be affected long-term.
"My main objective is to just be transparent, honest and open with the people," said Vandenhurk.
He decided to run for mayor instead of councillor because he wants to be at the top of the table and listen to both sides of the council. He said he views the mayor's role as more of a "co-ordinated mediator", and would use his head and heart.
"I want to be able to think for the people," he said. "When it comes down to a 50-50 decision and the mayor has that decision, I want to be able to think with my head and the community's interests."
Vandenhurk believes running for mayor isn't that much different than running for councillor, as each council member is involved with the decisions.
"I am going to listen to all of the concerns, and that's what I'm good at, and I've done this in my past. Just listen to people and take into consideration how they're feeling and what are things that could be dealt with differently, what are things that could be done, and what I'm able to do with that position now is take these concerns and make them actually feel like they're actually being heard."
In the past two years, he has been paying closer attention to city council and watching meetings online. He said he has a lot of respect for the people that are on council now. He hasn't agreed with all of the decisions that have been made, but he believes there is a lot of good that has happened within the city.
"There is a lot of focus on the negative that's been put on through this city," said Vandenhurk.
He didn't release any elements of his platform or share any issues, as he wants to save those for the pre-election candidates' forum, but he said he wants to gain the people's trust, for people to be happy in the community and to have hope. If people have concerns, then they can come to him.
He says he has the concerns of families in mind, because he has a young family of his own, but he's also thinking of seniors and youths. People have left the community because they have concerns about what will happen in the future.
"I want the people to be able to see what this future of Estevan could bring, through ideas that I have, and some changes that we can make, not with just myself or the council, but with the community," he said.
Vandenhurk has talked to some close friends, willing to help him with the campaign, but he wants to do this on his own. He's not looking for donations because he sees inflation hitting everybody hard. He expects he would be able to balance his work and other commitments if he were to be elected as mayor.
He says he wants to hear people's thoughts and he wants them to question him, and he said he will treat them with respect.
"The people are at the top of the priority [list], not the council or the leadership. They are the ones that pay the bills. They are the ones that have the right to any decisions that are made," he said.
