Councillor Kurt Christopherson announces he will not be seeking re-election

MERRITT – After 10 years on Merritt City Council, Kurt Christopherson has decided it has been enough time.

“I think that on a personal level its time for me to step aside and hopefully someone else can carry on with the work,” said Councilor Kurt Christopherson. “I think its been a real challenge and a pleasure to work on city council, but 10 years is not too bad to be on there, and I think its time to move along.”

When it comes to his 10 years as a Councilor, Christopherson wants to be remembered for his practical thinking around the table.

“I hope its for the common sense, at the end of the day, sometimes decisions are very difficult to make because there are so many things to take into account, but at the bottom of it all you want to do whats best for every person in Merritt and sometimes that’s a difficult thing to balance out.”

For those individuals contemplating running for an open council seat, Christopherson gave his advice on how to be a good councilor.

“I never said that I would tell people what they wanted to hear but I promised I would tell people what they needed to hear and there’s a huge difference there you have to take in account the bigger picture. You have to be prepared to work with others, you don’t always have to agree but at the end of the day decisions have to be made and once a decision is made by council, even if its a 4-3 vote, you all own that decision. You don’t walk away in the middle of a crisis. You have to leave your feelings at the door sometimes,you may not agree with everything that’s going on. Its not a popularity contest, there are tough decisions that have to be made and you do your best to come up with the best decision you can. You do need to have varying opinions if everybody agreed all of the time on everything than something is wrong.”

With Christopherson announcing his decision to not run, that leaves at least four seats as only Adam Etchart has announced his decision to run for a second term on Merritt City Council, while incumbent Mayor Linda Brown will be challenged by sitting Councilor Tony Luck.

Councilor Melvina White has yet to declare her intentions to run when residents head to the polls on October 15.