By Sarah Stone

La Ronge mayor looks ahead to airport review results

Dec 27, 2013 | 11:04 AM

With 2013 at its end, La Ronge Mayor Thomas Sierzycki said it’s been “a year of projects.”

“2013 was good in terms of development. We’ve had a number of housing increases that is still staying stable. The housing market is still at applicable prices … we’ve had numerous projects completed such as our $3 million worth of paving improvements to the community, as well as a lot of internal and external reviews that we’ve undertaken,” he said.

The review is two-fold, looking at the external relationships the Town of La Ronge has with various organizations and other municipalities. The second part was taken on by the University of Saskatchewan, which is looking at the La Ronge Airport and the regional capacity it serves.

“Currently, La Ronge is the community that maintains the airport, however it does serve as an important hub for northern Saskatchewan and we want to see what the actual socio-economic impacts are of that airport,” he explained.

From the review, Sierzycki would like to see how they can increase profitability of the airport, so they can reinvest in it to make sure it’s a state-of-the-art facility, “but also have the background data for anytime we’re doing any negotiates with the federal, provincial or local governments on the import of monies into the airport.”

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For 2014, a priority will be keep growth in going in the community. This year, like ones before, the population has been climbing.

“Due to our building records and some of the records that we keep, we’ve seen a steady increase and it’s been the same type of increase that we’ve seen for the past few years,” he said.

Sierzycki continued on to say naturally he wants to see sustainable growth, but at the same time the community “needs to cross the threshold into sustainable economic growth in terms of business in the community. That’s something we haven’t mastered yet and of course it does take time, but we would like to see new businesses into the community, as well having businesses thrive.”

Whether that’s through policies established by the Town of La Ronge or just by doing a better job at getting businesses to move forward, he said it must happen.

What in store for the young mayor

Sierzycki has been mayor for four years and the finish line for his political futures seems nowhere in sight.

Elected at 21, Sierzycki said he’s learned a lot from the people around him.

“Four years into it, I feel a little more comfortable. It’s always a learning curve and my biggest priority is to continue to serve the residents in whatever capacity I can, whether it be on the municipal level or other levels of government making sure the people have the right contacts in place, so we do have a healthy, thriving community,” he said.

Sierzycki plans on staying in his role as mayor into the near future, but did hint at a larger political picture for himself long-term.

“Hopefully when the time comes for another mandate or a different level of political, whether it be provincial or federal, that’s the time I’ll be asking voters to perhaps give me a new contract, a new position. But for now my priority is the Town of La Ronge.”

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84