Ron Vandewal

Sep 25, 2014

Mayor

Ron Vandewal – a family tradition

Ron Vandewal is open with his opinions. You might say he wears them on his sleeves. He has been a member of Council in South Frontenac for 11 years, and he has a family history on Loughborough Council as well.

He lives with his wife Nancy on a farm property that has been in his family since 1950. He continues to run the farm and drive a school bus. The rest of his time is devoted to family, and the township.

As a senior member of council he has taken an active role on committees, including the Committee of Adjustment and the Corporate Services committee, and he is a long-standing member of the Frontenac Arena board.

He said that he thought about running for mayor in 2010, but when Gary Davison told him he was running again, and that it would be the last time, “I figured I would be better off to stay on as a councilor. This time, I knew from early on that I was going to run for mayor.”

He realises that if elected as mayor, he would not be able to speak to issues as he does now, but would have to listen to what is said by others “and be more of a voice of reason”, but he feels that he has enough knowledge about the township to take on the leadership role.

He has been a persistent critic of some of the trends at Frontenac County over the years, and said, “Sometimes I scratch my head and wonder what the purpose of the county is, but the county is there and you have to make it work. My attitude is to go in to it politically and I will not be a negative force, not at all. I will say that we have to be conscious that we do not need to grow the county just for sake of growing the county.”

Among the issues facing the township in the coming years there is the question of development.

“There is no question that we are going to grow. There are subdivisions in stream now and more coming. What we have going for us is that we have a very good staff. I don't care what anyone says, I stand behind them. I think they make really good recommendations to us, and we make the final decisions, but we can handle growth because we have the planning, building, and public works staff to handle growth, and to keep taxes from going up that way,” he said.

He is committed to working towards maintaining tax increases 2% each year going forward, 1% for operations and 1% to go towards replacing fixed assets over time (roads, bridges, halls, equipment, offices and yards, etc.).

“One thing that I have always said, and I have sometimes been alone in this, is that when we have cost over-runs in a department they should be taken off the next year’s budget at the start, not just funded from reserve funds and forgotten about. I am the only mayoral candidate who voted against larger tax increases that were there because of how we fund cost over-runs,” he said.

One thing that Ron Vandewal will expect from Council if he is elected mayor is something he says he has always done himself - act in the interest of the entire township.

“In my 11 years on council, I have helped many residents from Storrington, Portland, Bedford, and Loughborough districts and these people know who they are. I have worked as hard for all South Frontenac as I have for my own district’s concerns and that is what I expect from everyone on council.”