Another candidate has joined the election race in Ward Four of the Rural Municipality of Hanover.

Larry Pries is the latest candidate to make his announcement, joining a slate that includes five others. Ward Four, which includes the communities of Sarto, Pansy and Friedensfeld is currently served by Councillor Dylan Barkman who is not running for re-election.

(Larry Pries)Pries says he has always enjoyed working with the general public, something he has done a fair bit of. He spent 31 years working for the city of Steinbach before retiring eight years ago.

"I figured it was time to maybe get back into the public eye here a bit and see what I could do to help out the people of Hanover," notes Pries.

New to the political arena, Pries says he realizes there will be a learning curve if he is elected October 24th. He says he would prefer to first familiarize himself with the position before announcing too many priorities.

"I think it would be somewhat silly to just come out and make all kinds of promises that you are going to do this, you are going to do that, whereas you should be in there I guess looking and finding out what the job actually all entails."

Pries says after being elected, he would listen to the people to find out their concerns.

"I would be there for them, I would be listening and taking their concerns fairly seriously," he promises. "I would be there to make their voices heard, there should be no voice left unheard, everybody's concern is a concern."

Pries says from his perspective, everything is running smoothly in the ward.

"I think Dylan Barkman did an awesome job with some of the stuff," he says. "I think he has been doing a good job, it was just now I saw that he was not running again and I figured you know what this might be a good time to get back in and go from there."

Pries says communication and transparency is huge and only when that happens as a team, can you achieve the goals set out. He notes he would also look for ways to spend tax dollars responsibly.

"I would be striving very hard to keep Hanover a great place to live as it is already, and to raise your family and just work hard in keeping it that way and generally just keeping it going in the right direction," adds Pries.