The Village of Delia has a new face in its office as it moves into 2017.
Mark Nikota has taken on the role of CAO.
Nikota started at the Village of Delia at the end of September. He has experience in local government as he served as Mayor of Hanna. He is also active on the Drumheller-Stettler Progressive Conservative Constituency Association.
While he is new at the village, he said last year was productive for Delia.
“As far as good things, in 2016, we got some infrastructure projects completed,” he said. “It was fairly comprehensive, there was some sewer and water done and some paving, all on one street.”
He says looking forward to the new year, he is looking at regional collaboration.
“Going forward, we are going to try and get the village working together, especially with surrounding communities, Drumheller being one of them and Starland County.”
He said economic development is a priority.
“We want to get some businesses here and try to spur the economy. The whole area has been stagnating with what is going on, but for Delia like other small towns, we just want to get things moving forward and try to attract people to the village.”
The first thing to look at in the new year is the budget.
“We haven’t laid things down. What I think we will be doing is taking a serious look at the budget,” he said. “We can’t do a lot of infrastructure year after year because it is costly and we have a small tax base. We are still waiting on MSI (Municipal Sustainability Initiative) funding announcement from the province. We don’t know where we stand as far as grant money. That will drive a large part of what we are planning to do.”
