Mayor of Eston loves helping his community

BY JOAN JANZEN
joanjanzen@yahoo.com

Al Heron is a well known individual in Eston, who currently holds the office of Mayor. “We came back to Eston from being in BC, to look after Claire’s dad,” Al explained. “There was a vacancy on town council, and I became a councillor for a term and a half. Then I ran for mayor, and I’ve been doing that for 14 years now,”

Al’s first experience with life in Eston occurred in 1952 when he was working for the CIBC as an accountant, for a period of three and a half years. From there he moved to Winnipeg, then Weyburn, on to Regina, and finally ended up at Victoria, B.C. The couple’s move back to Eston, would have been quite a change for them.

While many seniors may be content to sit back and relax, it didn’t take long before Al was looking for something to do, and became a town councillor. “I won’t tell you my age, but I was born in 1935,” Al teased. “I had the time to do something to help my community. That’s why I did it, and I’ve enjoyed it,” he said.

Al recalled the storm that hit Eston last July. “The thing I was grateful for when Eston had that ten minute storm, was the next day there were four mayors phoning, offering assistance to help. It’s gratifying when you have a situation like that and everyone is offering to help,” Al said. “The other thing that happened is the staff from the park came to help clean up the trees, and the road and rail crew came and helped clean up the town in just two days.”

Besides being the mayor, Al represents the west central municipal government through the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA), and also sits on the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA) board, which is the board that assesses buildings and properties. “Two days a month I have to go to one of their meetings,” Al added.

This will be Al’s last term as mayor, as the next election will be some time this fall. “I’ll miss the things that are going on. It’s nice to see projects getting closer to completion,” he said. He mentioned that work on the sewer lines was 90 percent completed, paving would be taking place, and the town has an almost brand new landfill.

“The four times I’ve run for mayor I’ve had no opposition,” Al said. Now that he will no longer be running, someone new will need to step up to the plate. “And I hope they’re younger than what I am,” Al concluded.