It was an emotional farewell for a Williams Lake City Councillor.
“I’m a bit of an emotional person anyway so I’m not surprised that there were some tears,” Laurie Walters told MyCaribooNow Tuesday evening.
“I’m going to really miss not being around this table but it’s definitely time for me to move on and open the seat up to someone else.”
Walters who is not seeking re-election adds that her third term has been most challenging and most rewarding.
“I was really able to find my own voice and had some major things like the pool renovation, the arts council, some of the initiatives that have taken place there,” she says.
“I think that this Council challenged me in ways that were different than the other two. Sometimes it was lonely where I felt like I was being a voice for a sector that may be needed to be heard, but I was up for that challenge.”
As for what’s next, Walters says she will be reinvesting her time by spending more time with her aging parents, doing more fun stuff with her grandkids, continuing to work at the Central Interior Rural Division, and continuing to use all of the skills that she’s learned as Councillor.
She says she hopes whoever will be elected following the Municipal Election on October 20th, to be a good a listener, be driven by what their gut tells them, and to come to a Council table with an open mind and not a personal agenda, but to be prepared for those important debates.
“The Integrated Community Sustainable Plan took three years to develop and it developed by the community. It’s one that I really think this new Council should read again and look at those initiatives because they really were the vision of our city 20 years from now,” Walters adds.
(Editor’s Note: Listen to Walters speak to her 10 years as Councillor in the audio file below)