The communities of Kleefeld and New Bothwell could become Local Urban Districts or LUDs.

Right now, they are Fake LUDs, or FLUDs. Travis Doerksen is the municipal Councillor for the New Bothwell area. He says there are many advantages to being an LUD instead of an FLUD.

Doerksen says one advantage is that when a community is an LUD, the decision making belongs to an elected committee, instead of solely the elected Councillor. In the case of New Bothwell, there would be three committee members elected by residents of that community.

"Their job is to then make decisions within their community, such as roadways, walkways, mowing grass, Christmas lights, infrastructure decisions, stuff like that," explains Doerksen. "They are a group that is from your community, making your community decisions. So that is a great benefit to us to keep that local flavour."

Darrin Warkentin is the municipal Councillor for the Kleefeld area. With Kleefeld growing by 13 per cent in the last nine months, Warkentin says it is a challenge for him to be making all the decisions for such a growing community.

Doerksen notes another advantage is the cost savings for ratepayers. Hanover currently has LUDs in the communities of Blumenort, Mitchell and Grunthal. Doerksen says this year those three LUDs have mill rates of five mills or less. On the other hand, because New Bothwell and Kleefeld are not LUDs, they are using the rural mill rate, which is 6.179 mills this year. That means for a home assessed at $250,000 in New Bothwell and Kleefeld, the ratepayer is dishing out approximately $132 more this year in taxes.

According to Warkentin, it is now time to get the residents of New Bothwell and Kleefeld on board. Petitions will be circulating in each community. Based on population, New Bothwell will need 201 signatures, while Kleefeld will require 301 signatures in order for this to come to council level. Warkentin says it then goes to the province with the hope of being finalized in time for the next municipal election in October of 2022.

"In my opinion, this is a no brainer," says Doerksen. "This is a slam dunk."

He says one reason why it makes so much sense to switch to an LUD is that they have seen the success of Hanover's other three LUDs.

"They run smoothly," he says. "We have great relationships between administration, the LUD and the local councillor and also the rec groups in our communities. So everybody works together to make these decisions and two or three minds is always better than one."