Cranbrook City Council member Ron Popoff will be returning to chambers for a third term after the local election.
“I want to thank the residents of Cranbrook for having confidence in me for another four years,” said Popoff. “I’m looking forward to following through with some of the work we need to get done.”
Popoff hopes to see Cranbrook’s population grow.
“We have our new official community plan coming forward and our downtown revitalization plan. We have a number of other plans and initiatives coming forward plus all the land development and zoning,” said Popoff. “With the next council, we have to look at how we get to [a population of] 30,000.”
The incumbent council member said the city would need to work on existing issues to achieve that goal.
“We have to take the challenges, some of which we own directly and some that we have to advocate to the provincial government for,” said Popoff. “We have to take a strong leadership role to take on those hurdles. As we grow, there are going to be some growing pains and unfortunately, that’s the homelessness and crime issues and some the housing are some challenges.”
He added that he feels confident that the new city council, with Wayne Price as mayor, will be able to handle the situation.
Popoff will be returning to city council alongside Wes Graham, Norma Blissett and Mike Peabody.
They will be joined by newcomer Lynette Wray and former mayor Wayne Stetski.