Bot seeks mayor’s seat in Esterhazy
October 28, 2024, 9:33 am
Ryan Kiedrowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
After eight years as a town councillor, Randy Bot has his sights set on the mayor’s seat in Esterhazy, challenging longtime mayor Grant Forster in the election on Nov. 13.
“There’s a lot of positive opportuny for change in the community, and instead of being ‘a vote,’ I kind of wanted to get more serious on going out there, making connections and trying to find opportunities for the community,” he said when asked what made him decide to run for mayor. “I feel like I can do that better as the mayor than I could as a councillor.”
Bot sees the mayor position as a way to affect even greater change on a municipal government level.
“I enjoyed being a councillor, but I think it’s time to move forward,” he said. “If you’re not trying to bring it to the next step, then I’m just going to be standing still doing the same thing forever, right? I’m just more interested in building those relationships and connections outside of the community, to try to bring new things and positivity into the community.”
Along with two people vying for mayor, there are nine candidates for the six councillor positions in this election.
“It’s going to be good having different people in those positions and some different opinions, bringing new ideas to the table,” Bot said. “I hope that they’re happy with what we’ve been doing so far, and we can build off the strengths of the other councillors that will be back. That’s my biggest thing is excitement, some new faces in there, as it’s been the same council for a long time now. Change is good, I think, and hopefully it will go on to a positive direction.”
A main priority for Bot is drumming up ways to bring revenue into town, through attracting more residents and businesses—therefore increasing the taxation base and ultimately lowering the overall burden for large-scale projects—and looking at ideas such as selling water once the new water treatment plant is finished.
“I feel like for so long, we get these big projects, and we’re putting all that pressure onto the taxpayers because we don’t have enough revenue sources aside from taxation,” Bot said. “I just want to help try to drive down the cost of living, to make Esterhazy even more of an appealing place to be.”
Maintaining roads and sidewalks is also top of mind for Bot, but equally important is fixing what he sees as a disconnect between council and taxpayers.
“You can’t forget about the other things that are going on, like our aging infrastructure and our facilities and stuff like that that still needs upkeep,” he said. “One of my biggest things is to get our paving program going again, to start getting our roads repaired. We have a lot of sidewalks in town that really need some attention, so I want to make sure that we have a plan going forward to keep putting money into that infrastructure and not be blinded by just that one project.”
As for the disconnect issue, Bot feels it all boils down to increased transparency.
“I just find that there’s needs in the community that aren’t being met,” he said. “Usually, from watching social media or hearing people on the streets, they just feel like they could get a little bit more transparency from council and the mayor.”
If elected, Bot vows to keep those communication lines open, committing office time in order to have that availability with the public.
“If the taxpayers do have any issues or concerns, they can come meet with me and and know that their concerns will be brought to council and they’ll be getting a response back from me,” he said. “I just want to have a relationship where they’re happy with the transparency coming from their council, because at the end of the day, we work for them, right?”
A paramedic for the past 17 years, Bot has also been part of the Rockin’ the Park event, serving on the Recreation Committee, and has volunteered with events such as the big toy drive with the Bargain Shop and Santa Claus Day events.
