New Westminster city council will be losing at least 29 years of experience following the fall election.
While several incumbents are seeking re-election, Lorrie Williams and Bill Harper will be retiring from city council.
“You look at your life and think, maybe it’s time. It’s been 16 years, five elections. When you think about that, you think that is a long time,” Williams told the Record. “There are some awfully good people in New Westminster. I don’t mind making room for them.”
Williams said she’s proud of a number of number of accomplishments during her time on city council, including the installation of the Wait for Me Daddy war memorial in Hyack Square and the increase in child-care spaces in the city. While she’ll miss not seeing some outstanding initiatives complete, including construction of a new animal shelter, she’s looking forward to new endeavours.
“It’s kind of nice to go out on a high,” she said. “I am healthy. I am so lucky. This is precious time now.”
Williams said she’ll miss serving on city council but doesn’t plan to volunteer for civic committees for at least a year.
Harper said he will continue to be active locally, but will be able to spend more time with family, including his wife Delora, who retired nine years ago.
“It’s been 13 years. It’s been a really good run for me,” said Harper, who formerly worked as a national rep for CUPE. “It’s time for me, I would say, to really retire. I did retire in 2004, expecting that I was simply going to be retired but that didn’t happen.”
Harper said the most significant accomplishments of council during his tenure have been construction of Westminster Pier Park and Anvil Centre, progress on the Intelligent City Strategy that’s helping the city transition from an industrial/mill town to a tech hub and improvements in the city’s image and livability.
“The city has transformed itself,” he said of initiatives undertaken by council and city staff. “It’s become far more livable place. People see it differently, especially the people who are moving in. They come and they see what’s here and say, ‘oh this is a nice place, it’s small, it’s compact, it’s got a lot of cultural things going on. The kids have got good schools.’ It’s become one of the places to live in the Lower Mainland.”
With the election taking place on Oct. 20, Harper and Williams are getting set to attend their final three city council meetings and the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in September, where they’ll support resolutions being put forward by the City of New Westminster.
Incumbent councillors Patrick Johnstone, Jaimie McEvoy and Mary Trentadue are seeking re-election in the Oct. 20 civic election, as is Mayor Jonathan Cote. Incumbent councillor Chuck Puchmayr said he expects to finalize his plans in the next week.
“With those five, the city is in good hands,” Williams said. “I am leaving what I consider to be a dream team. We didn’t always agree, we didn’t always see eye to eye, but I’ll tell you one thing, we respected each other. We did disagree on issues, not personalities. That was so refreshing.”
