Interesting term ahead for Ward 1 councillors
By ALAN LICZYK

Ward 1 will have an incumbent and a first-time councillor serving their interests for the next four years on Caledon council.

In last Monday's municipal election, Richard Paterak was re-elected as regional councillor while Doug Beffort will fill the position of area councillor in the next term.

Paterak captured 1,489 votes (61 per cent) to beat out his only opponent Jim Pattison who received 966 votes (39 per cent).

Paterak was feeling quite good about his victory although it was a closer margin than he expected.

"I thought I might do a little better," he said.

He noted Pattison seems to have a lock on about 950 votes.

As Paterak was campaigning some of the issues that were raised included taxes and the traffic on rural north-south roads and through the villages.

"No one likes to pay taxes," he said.

He was surprised the play some of the candidates were giving taxes.

"We've been trying to hold the line on taxes," he said.

He explained wages go up, new streets have to be plowed and more people are using their facilities, things that all cost more money. He added only about 30 per cent of a home owner's tax bill is from Caledon council. The rest is from Peel region and the school boards.

In the next term Paterak noted some issues that are coming up include an official plan amendment for cultural heritage landscape and some gravel pit applications.

"It's going to be interesting," he said.

Paterak liked the new electronic vote tabulators the Town used for the first time in this municipal election. While it didn't get the first numbers out until 8:20 p.m. the final totals were in by 9 p.m.

"It all worked fairly well," he said.

Beffort said he felt great after winning in his first political race. He explained he stuck to a plan and it worked. He also knocked on a lot of doors.

He garnered 1,261 votes (51 per cent) to 911 (37 per cent) for Tim Forster and 307 (12 per cent) for John Martin.

Beffort said he was feeling pride and thankfulness afterward. He was pretty proud he even took the opportunity to run and he wanted to thank the electorate and his campaign team for his victory.

He heard two main messages during the campaign: taxes and traffic. Homeowners want council to be as prudent as possible with taxes and residents want someone to see what they can do about the volume and speed of traffic.

He's looking forward to what council has to bring to him. The only people on council he knew before were Mayor Marolyn Morrison and Paterak. He taking a wait-and-see attitude.

"It's up to the mayor to bring us together," he said.

Beffort said the most surprising thing about the election was how tough it was to run.

"It was a hard thing to do," he said. "It was tougher than I anticipated."