Altona will have a new mayor this fall.

After 16 years in the town's top job, Melvin Klassen has announced he will not be seeking re-election in October's municipal vote.

"I think many things have been accomplished over those years, but we need to get new people and new ideas to keep the town moving forward," said Klassen.

Klassen was first elected to council in 1998 and took over as mayor in 2002.

In that time the town has grown from a population of about 3,400 to about 4,200 based on the 2016 census numbers. 

As a result, the town has seen moderate growth in its residential sector with new homes opening up in the northwest corner of town and the community's industrial sector has also been enlarged spearheaded by a multi-million dollar expansion of the Bunge Canada plant. 

Despite that progress, the town's retail sector has struggled over the years as local shops try to compete with some of the big box stores in nieghbouring communities in addition to an increase in online shopping.

Klassen said he's proud of what has been accomplished during his tenure and is confident there will be qualified candidates stepping forward to run for the post in fall.

"I've been very fortunate to be mayor during this time. I've felt good support from the community, a community that wants to be progressive and needs aggressive leadership and there are people in the community that could provide that."

Klassen tipped his hat to the people who came before him as mayor, people such as Ed Klassen, Albert Schmidt and Art Dyck who all helped set the pace for the community to move forward.

"I feel the town councils, since that time, have been able to keep that momentum going. To me it's been important that we've expanded the lagoon and now the landfill because these are key pieces of infrastructure for the future growth of Altona," said Klassen.

This year's municipal general election is scheduled for Wednesday, October 24th.