Al Friesen's name will be absent from Altona's mayoral ballot in the upcoming municipal elections slated for October. After serving one, four-year term on Council followed by another single, four-year term as Mayor, Friesen has announced he will not seek re-election.

"I simply felt that not all of us get to pick when we wrap things up whether in work or otherwise, and this allowed me to pick my time and I felt this was my time," he explained.

Friesen noted something he says a former, greatly-respected work colleague of his used to say. "If you don't miss it, then you stayed too long."

"It's better to miss it than to feel that you stayed too long," he added, noting he will miss the job intensely. "I will miss leading a team of caring, talented council members, collaborating as a team with Council and administration and, I would like to say, effecting positive change in our community. We aspired to be an attractive, caring and progressive community and I know we worked hard to make that happen over the last four years."

According to Friesen, those accomplishments include raising a new town flag, implementing a year-round composting program, partnering with a grassroots group to expand the community garden, and working with the community to relocate the cenotaph. As well, Friesen said he is proud of the formation of Equal Access Altona, another citizen-led group aimed at ensuring all manner of accessibility in the community which, he noted, resulted in two new crosswalks, user-friendly sidewalks and to come this year, a hard-surfaced extension of the local trail system on Millennium Drive. He noted, that being selected to host the 2022 Pembina Valley Pride parade this coming June is also a tribute to those aspirations.

"I think the cannabis discussion is another positive, that the community took care of it in an open way, and it resulted ultimately in two businesses establishing themselves in our community," added Friesen, who noted the COVID-19 live stream conversation was another way residents came together to discuss something of importance to the community.

Overall, Friesen said he is proud of how Council and administration responded to COVID-19 on the whole. "It ultimately was driven by staff safety, adherence to rules and creativity of our recreation staff to still make things happen and deliver the services the people in our community expect from us."

The Mayor also listed the industrial park expansion, the Southwest and Downtown drainage projects, and the resurfacing of 14th Ave as positive steps forward for Altona.

Not to be overlooked, added Friesen, are the relationships that have been forged in order to enact local change. That includes a joint effort to relocate the Altona branch of the South Central Regional Library, the decision to work with a local daycare group to build a new, 135 space childcare facility, and what Friesen said was the difficult discussion between citizens, the Town, Southern Health-Sante Sud and others to restore 24/7 emergency room services at the Altona hospital.

In addition, Friesen pointed to the partnership that's been further developed with the neighbouring Municipality of Rhineland. The two local governments have come together to support the creation of SEED, develop a joint tax incentive program for new and expanding businesses, and participate in the Rural and Northern Immigration Program together with the federal government.

As well, Friesen feels the Town made good on a strategic goal to improve community engagement. He feels officials reached out to the community, whether it was through social media, radio, print or on its website, and also gave the community a chance to respond.

Despite all of these accomplishments, Friesen noted there is still work to do between now and October, and beyond. That includes tackling a $6 million capital projects program, as well as ongoing lobby efforts to have the province improve Centre Avenue and Main Street. Recent discussions with Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure will also continue, in partnership with the Municipality of Rhineland, regarding access points on Highway 30.

As for the early timing of Friesen's announcement, he simply said it felt gave others more time to consider whether they'd like to take a run at the Mayor role. He offered up this advice.

"I think it's important to note that our role as Council is to initiate, or fund, or encourage or provide a platform for community buy-in. We don't have to be in charge of everything, but we can play a role and sometimes, that role is just to be a cheerleader or an advocate," said Friesen, noting being a good listener and a willingness to collaborate are good qualities for a candidate to possess. "We are part of a team, a team of seven, one voice out of seven and one vote out of seven."