Pink Shirt Day PAGE 13
Your LOCAL Media since 1918! Volume 105 Issue 26
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Wednesday, March 1, 2023 s
Ryley council cleans house New Mayor and Deputy Mayor elected, Interim CAO appointed Jana Semeniuk Staff Reporter
Three of the five members of Ryley Village Council, Lyndie Nickel, Brian Durcherer and Sheldon Reid, conducted a council meeting Feb. 21 where they elected Durcherer as the new mayor and Nickel as the new deputy mayor. Previous Mayor Nik Lee and previous Deputy Mayor Nola Wood-Herrick did not attend the meeting and did not communicate a reason why beforehand, to any of the council members. One of Council’s first orders of business was to direct administration to deliver all overdue draft minutes to council, approving up to $1,000 for the purpose. One member of the gallery commented on the changes to the Village Council during the meeting. “The Council’s transparent. I can see them again,” he said, igniting laughter from the audience. Another resident asked if the changes council made were legal and binding. Deputy Mayor Nickel said the meeting was legally held with a quorum. “Everything has been done by the law,” she said. Councillor Sheldon Reid added that the council members have been in touch with Municipal Affairs who have helped to guide them each step of the way. “We’ve talked to Rebecca Shultz, and Gary Sandberg,” he said, adding that Lee is no longer Mayor, but he is still a council member. Unrest has been rampant among village residents and council members surrounding previous Mayor Nik Lee, who was first elected to council in 2017. According to reports, Lee was indebted to the Village through unpaid taxes for two years after his 2017 election. Although he eventually paid the bill totalling
A large crowd of citizens gathered at the Feb. 22 Ryley Council meeting where a new Mayor and Deputy Mayor were chosen. more than $3,000 in 2019, he was nevertheless asked to step down and when he refused the Village took him to court in Feb. 2021 where he was disqualified from holding a council seat. Lee was elected again in the fall of 2021 and won the mayor seat in Oct. 2022 in a three to one vote of the council. Since then, the Village has gone through three CAOs, one byelection, and at least two fired village employees to the dismay of residents who have formed a group looking to oust Lee altogether from council with a petition. They will need at least 40 percent of the village residents’ signatures, along with validation of the petition from the CAO before Lee can be removed. The village of Ryley has a population of 484. Meanwhile, Ryley resident Debbie Sych attended the Feb. 21 council meeting and said she was pleased with the audience turnout. She said she hopes the Village can turn things around. “(They need to) hear (from) residents and actually
move in that direction. These last few years have been so stunted, (that) it’s discouraged a lot of people (and) I think that's why there’s such a nice turnout today,” she said. “We want to be encouraged a little bit and start getting some of that back and hopefully (with) these three (councillors) that at least bothered to attend (we can do that).” Ryley has also been without a permanent CAO since Ron Cust left the job on Dec. 19. An interim CAO, Wendy Wildman, was appointed Jan. 1 but left the position by Jan. 11 and another interim CAO, Julie Ulmer, was appointed. On Ulmer’s first day, she fired two village office employees, Tracey Able and Lorraine Williams, with the explanation ‘I’m only doing my job’, according to Williams. Ulmer left the position within a few days and Ryley has been without a CAO ever since. Williams, and the other fired village office employee Tracey Able, were present at the Feb. 21 meeting. Continued on Page 16
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