On Monday, the City of Dauphin's new mayor Steve Sobering and five of the six Councillors were sworn in, marking the official start of their four year term.
Several of the newly elected officials have played the game before - Sobering himself and four of the six Councillors had been a part of the last term's City Council. Sobering said that experience will certainly help with how he approaches sitting in the Mayor's chair, and how he'll work closely with the Councillors.
"Our first four years as Council, we kind of inherited a lot of the projects that were from previous Council and already been budgeted, some were very large, like the lagoon upgrade, and the bridge rehabilitation, the redevelopment of the south end, the highway...I think we're committed to getting together as a new Council, working on what our priorities are, getting everybody in place on our committees," said Sobering.
Michelle Nyquist and Scott McCallum are Dauphin's two new Councillors with no prior experience. Sobering said that won't change how he plans to work with them - he's seen how committed they are to making the community better.
"I know them both personally, and I think they're both a great addition, I think they'll be able to get up to speed in a really short period of time...I know they both have the best interest of the community in mind, and I just want to include them and hear what they desire for their first four years, and work toward achieving that," said Sobering.
Even though they've only been in office for less than a week, it's been a very busy one for Dauphin's City Council. During the initial meeting, Deputy City Manager Lisa Gaudet shared some details about a possible partnership with the International Institute for Sustainable Development to focus on climate control measures, and Premier Wab Kinew and other ministers visited Dauphin for the groundbreaking of the new Justice Centre.
One thing Sobering hopes to constantly push for during his term is positive community engagement, and clear and transparent communication with residents.
"Some of the things that were most upsetting to people, or the issues they had, I think a lot of that stemmed from a lack of information out there on the specifics of some of the projects, and I think we don't do a good enough job of letting people know all the positive things that are underway...I think the best thing we can do is get better information out there, and quicker, I think that would help people so that they have a basis to kind of form an opinion on," said Sobering.
Sobering also said the City has a good number of projects currently in the works, including a soon-to-be-built new apartment complex in the City's south end.
