Art Bergmann was the reeve for the Rural Municipality of Ste. Anne for the past 16 years and according to Bergmann, it's been 16 years with a lot of change. 

Bergmann explains he came into the role of reeve with no previous experience in politics and at a time where there was a lot of turmoil in the municipality. 16 years later, Bergmann says it has been quite the ride, one he wouldn't change.

Steinbachonline (STOL) had the chance to sit down with Art and look back at his long journey in municipal politics. 

STOL: Art, let’s got back in time here a little bit. You were reeve in the RM of Ste. Anne for 16 years, what lead you to the decision to go into politics at that time?

Art: Well I was invited by a former councillor to consider this and maybe bring my skills, for working around the table with people, to the municipality and the idea grew on me and I considered where my family came from. We came into Ste. Anne in 1933, my grandfather and his family, broke, relatively new to the country, didn’t know the language, didn’t know the customs and that’s where we had our earliest start and got our economic feet under us, so it was payback time.

STOL: So how has this whole experience been for you? Obviously, there has been a lot of change in the RM of Ste. Anne over the past 16 years as you’ve been reeve, what’s this journey been like?

Art: Well, my deputy Laurie Evans and I joked that kicking and screaming, we were going to get the municipality into last century and eventually into this century and certainly, we think we were successful on that.

STOL: Just talk about the things you’ve seen in your experience in municipal politics over 16 years.

Art: There have been a lot of changes and certainly one of them is that there has been quite a bit of stuff that has been downloaded by the province, the expectations for municipalities are very different today. Certainly, when I went into it as reeve in 2002, the amount of time that I needed to spend on municipal business was significantly less than it was last month.

STOL: What are maybe some of the differences in the municipality back then in 2002 and then now in 2018?

Art: We should have taken pictures of our roads in 2002. We had roads that were not passable in spring and that was acceptable. One of the things that we said was roads bring us to the market and bring our people to jobs and where the school buses go and we need to have those so that everything is accessible. We spent a lot of energy and dollars bringing roads up to shape and today we are rather proud of where we’ve come from and where we are.

STOL: This new council that was recently elected, a new reeve who has been on council for many years but a lot of new faces to council. What’s your take on the future of the RM of Ste. Anne?

Art: I was delighted that Paul got elected because it was an endorsement of the direction that we’ve been going. For a member of council that put his hat into the ring and got elected, that is an endorsement. With four new young councillors on the council, it’ll take a little while to get up to speed but I have every confidence that they are going to manage really fine. Part of the deal too is the fact that we’ve got a good administration. They have been in it for quite a few years and they are well up to speed and I would expect that council will be able to work really well together with the administration to get things done.

STOL: What’s next for Art Bergmann? What’s the next chapter in your life, what are you going to be up to?

Art: Well, I’ll work a little bit less. Bees and honey is still our lively hood and something I enjoy doing with my son. I’m going to spend a little more time with the grandkids. Grandkids in North Dakota, grandkids in British Columbia and grandkids in Manitoba. My fishing boat will probably get a little more exercise.