Retired Kelowna bylaw officer Bob Schewe is running for mayor in Kelowna.
(JOHN MCDONALD / iNFOnews.ca)
September 17, 2018 - 5:00 PM
KELOWNA - As a frontline Kelowna bylaw officer — not a manager but one of the guys out on the streets — Bob Schewe says he has a view of Kelowna’s downtown problems that current Mayor Colin Basran will never have.
And that’s why the recently retired Schewe says he should have Basran’s job, joining two other challengers.
“I’ve been in the trenches and I’ve dealt with the downtown people and other issues around the city,” the 12-year veteran says. “I know what works and what doesn’t."
The big difference between him and the incumbent mayor? Schewe says as mayor, he wouldn’t tolerate some of the behaviour such as open drug use he’s seen around the city and especially downtown.
“The current policies that our mayor and council have taken (is) a path that's just not acceptable,” Schewe insists.
“I think we’re rushing way too fast to become a big city with all the associated costs to the taxpayers and businesses and all the big-city problems that go with it,” he adds.
Schewe has been in Kelowna for 25 years, working first as a dog control officer for the Central Okanagan Regional District before being recruited over to Kelowna bylaw.
Rounding out his experience, Schewe says he also worked as a volunteer firefighter and renovation contractor, and continues to work at Princess Auto in Kelowna.
“I work with the people and I’m for the people,” he says.
The 63-year-old is married with grandkids and says he fell in love with the Okanagan during a winter holiday where it was 10 Celsius here and -30 C in his hometown of Winnipeg.
Kelowna residents go to the polls Oct. 20.
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