by Arthur Milnes
Northern News Services

FORT SIMPSON (Oct 24/97) - Some old, some new -- all elected.

That was the news residents of Fort Simpson woke up to Tuesday morning as word of Monday's election results swept through town.

Of eight seats on council, four will now be occupied by councillors different than those who served last time around.

Carl Lafferty, Ron McCagg, Marilyn Napier and Gordon Villeneuve will now be among those guiding Fort Simpson into the last year of the century. Both Villeneuve and McCagg have served on council in the past.

Those returning from last election are: Bob Hanna, Owen Rowe, Lindsay Waugh and Tom Wilson.

Waugh, however, was only one vote ahead of Daniel Lapierre after the count Monday night. A recount was scheduled to be held last night at 7 p.m.

The only councillor to be defeated was Ken Brown.

The mix between old and new pleased council newcomer Carl Lafferty.

"I'm relieved there will be some old hands left among the crew," the rookie councillor said. "We won't be going in blind and there will be some continuity."

As for Villeneuve, he said he was looking forward to tackling the issues. "It's time to get at it," he said. "Now the work begins."

Bob Hanna, who was re-elected, said the experience is humbling.

"It's a good feeling knowing that you have the support of the community," he said. "We'll continue what we started."

All told, approximately 40 per cent of eligible voters -- 325 out of about 750 -- took time to come out and vote.

This represents about a 20 per cent drop from 1994 when about 60 per cent -- 474 people out of about 775 eligible voters -- came out to vote.

Despite the drop, returning officer Rita Cazon said Monday's election went well.

"It was quite smooth," she said. "Through the whole thing, we only had one rejected ballot."

Cazon also responded to concerns that had been raised about the polls closing at 7 p.m. She pointed out that the hours had been well posted throughout town and said Fort Simpson polls had closed at that time for as long as she can remember.

None of this concerned Simpson resident Rick Dupont. Instead, he wanted the new council and mayor to get to work.

"They should do something about health care and road improvements," he said. "And they should work towards placing artificial ice at the recreation centre."

Regardless, these and other issues are now in the new council's court.