There will be at least two more choices on the ballot for Orangeville council come the Oct. 25 municipal elections, Bernadette Hardaker and Sandro Di Pasquale.

This means there are now 13 in the running for seven council seats, but a challenger to Mayor Rob Adams has yet to surface.

Deputy Mayor Warren Maycock faces competition from former councillor Ken Manwell and newcomer Don-Christopher Culver.

The race for councillors is slightly more intense. Ms. Hardaker and Mr. Di Pasquale join Karl Pilatzke and Gary Skinn as newcomers who will run against incumbents Sylvia Bradley, Scott Wilson, Mary Rose and Gail Campbell.

With the deadline for nominations on Friday, Sept. 10, Councillor Gary Kocialek is the only current councillor who has not declared.

Ms. Hardaker, a writer who currently chairs the Orangeville Trailways Committee, would like to see a council that promotes more community involvement in municipal politics. She also advocates pursuing more reciprocal agreements between the various county municipalities.

Mr. Di Pasquale, a local businessman, wishes to be the “voice of restraint” on council. He suggests the town should shut down the Tony Rose Memorial Sports Complex, the Alder Street branch of the public library and scrap the town’s building and bylaw and planning departments.

Of the new challengers for council, Ms. Hardaker is arguably the most acquainted with Orangeville municipal politics. Besides her tenure on the Trailways Committee, she is also the wife of Rob Strang, a former Orangeville councillor.

Ms. Hardaker was recently in the public spotlight when council voted 4-3 to kill a 1.2-kilometre trail alongside the town’s railway, even though it had been before the public for three years, had received little vocal opposition at council during that period and had received both federal and provincial funding.

As for any speculation that she is running out of spite and is a one-issue candidate, Ms. Hardaker said in an interview there should be more interaction between the public and the elected officials at council meetings, but added that the current council consists of “genuinely decent people who are doing a good job.” She added that her criticism of council “is not a question of integrity. It’s a question of approach.”

Pointing out that “there are a lot of issues I am concerned about,” her concern was that “half of the time you don’t know what’s going on at council. It seems like much has been discussed beforehand.

“Councillors have to work harder at engaging the public. They should explain and telegraph what the issues are.”

Ms. Hardaker said that she will launch a campaign website and, if elected, will continue it as a councillor’s website that will keep constituents informed on the issues.

She said a priority of the next council should be to negotiate cost-sharing agreements with other Dufferin municipalities.

“There should be costsharing agreements for library and recreational services,” said Ms. Hardaker, “particularly libraries.”

Mr. Di Pasquale, on the other hand, has strong opinions concerning the Orangeville Public Library.

“We don’t need two libraries,” he said in an interview. The Alder Street branch “has got to go.”

Arguing that council is “being spoon-fed by a bureaucracy that’s very comfortable,” he vowed to be “the voice of restraint at town council.”

To back this up, Mr. Di Pasquale said that, if elected, he would cut his councillor’s salary by 10 per cent. Calling for a zeropercent property tax increase for 2011, he also stated that the Tony Rose complex is redundant. “Its negative aspects far outweigh its minor benefits.”

Mr. Di Pasquale also said the town is close to maxing out, in regards to population growth and lands available to be developed. Thus, he maintained that the Town’s building department, as well as the building and bylaw department, should be discontinued and their duties contracted out when needed. “We need to step into the 21st century,” he said.

He also expressed his displeasure at the Town’s involvement in such projects as the Humber College campus site on Veterans Way. In 2005, the town spent $3 million toward the purchase and servicing of 28 acres of land designated for the campus, which has undergone a number of delays and has yet to break ground.

“Stick to what you know,” Mr. Di Pasquale said. “Take care of the basics, first.”