Gord Turner has announced he will be running for another tern on Castlegar city council. Turner, who is a senior instructor at Selkirk College, has received the "Excellence in Teaching" award and is a member of the Rotary club and a co-ordinator of the Rotary Youth Exchange. He has served as Chair of School District No. 9 (now No. 20) and as a chair of the Kootenay Gallery of Art, History and Science. Turner is also a regular columnist with the Castlegar News.
"I've been on council for ten years now," he said. "I particularly like this last three years. Our council gets along very well. I'm very happy about that. And because we get along we get the business of the city done quite quickly and quite efficiently."
Turner said the current council has a knack for putting away personal beefs and getting work done.
"We leave our baggage at the door. We just go in and do our business and manage things quite well," he said. "Because it's a good place to be and a good group, I'd like to run for another three years."
Turner is proud that Castlegar council is progressive and keeps moving forward.
"We're not just sitting there on our laurels and saying that what's here is okay," he said. "We keep trying to move ahead and look for new things to do."
Two examples Turner cites of council working together are new deals with Celgar and bringing in the Chances Gaming Centre.
"It's just another way to create jobs. Another way to give back to the community," he said. "We had some minor opposition but we just said 'this is the future. Let's go for it.' So we moved ahead."
Turner also points to infrastructure such as roads and sewers as strong points in the community.
"Another item where we are progressing is putting those pipes under the bridge for water and sewer [out to the airport]," he said. "I think that takes a lot of leadership and forward thinking to do that and I think that's in this council."