A technical difficulty during the last go-around hasn’t deterred Sheldon Ready from making another run for a seat on council.
Ready was disqualified from last year’s by-election because one of his nominators had failed to put the correct address on their nomination form. Despite this negative experience, Ready, who ran on a platform aimed at making Sicamous a centre of wellness, says he’s already been speaking with voters and determining the issues he would focus on if elected. They include the following:
1) Create private-sector interest and investment in Sicamous; 2) a general reduction in property taxes combined with policy adjustments that include a “’belt-tightening’ and streamlining of existing administrative operations with pay decreases for mayor and councillors; 3) a “twinning of the Bruhn Bridge,” to be initiated through the creation of a bridge expansion fund; 4) ongoing aggressive marketing of the Sicamous and District Recreation Centre; 4) “fine-tuning” Sicamous’ tourism profile to address needs of the lake, including the establishment of in-town campsites and initiatives that would encourage families to stop; and 5) improving public transportation between Sicamous and Salmon Arm so that commuters traveling either way can do so safely and enjoy what each community has to offer.
A framing carpenter by trade, Ready moved to Sicamous in 1989. Along with being the caregiver to his parents and raising his own two kids as a single parent, Ready has been involved in a variety of things, from coaching soccer, to singing with the Sicamous Choristers, to working with Wilderness Watch monitoring the Eagle River watershed. He also does single-father advocacy work throughout the area.
Ready says he would also like to see the community take advantage of opportunities for passive tourism in the community, which he believes will help attract young families to the community and stimulate long-term growth.
“Sicamous has a long history in the First Nations culture as being a meeting place,” says Ready. “Being situated at the delta of the Eagle River watershed lends itself constructively to the wellness of this watershed and general population – a culture of wellness, inhabited by healthy people of all ages.”