Less than two weeks after the municipal election, the Village of Morrin has no council.
Residents of the village will be going back to the polls after two of the three elected candidates have resigned.
Returning Officer Annette Plachner explains on Monday, October 25, she received a resignation letter from councillor-elect Lynn Helton. And on the day of the Organizational Meeting, Ken Balacko emailed informing her he too has resigned.
This leaves M’liss Edwards the sole elected member of the council.
Morrin has been plagued by untimely resignations over the last term and the province so far had to appoint Harold Johnsrude as an administrator in December of last year.
Because Johnsrude was appointed to serve until the end of December, the village is wasting no time in holding a by-election which has been slated for December 13. Nominations are open.
Plachner said Balacko indicated he resigned due to health concerns.
Helton, who ran alongside her husband Howard in the election, was more pointed in her resignation email stating, “you can shove your whole village ‘where the sun don’t shine.’”
Plachner adds, following nomination day, Howard and Lynn Helton attempted to withdraw their names, but missed the deadline.
Edwards was sworn in at the Organizational Meeting last Wednesday and took her oath of office, but she is frozen as there is no quorum due to the resignations.
Plachner said residents are not impressed with the resignations.
“Last night (Wednesday) we had a few people at our meeting, and they were just livid, good people from the village,” she said.
