Fresh faces join Harvey Shire as local government elections come to a close, with four councillors re-elected

The four Harvey Shire councillors who put their hand up to contest their seats were all easily re-elected at the weekend, while two fresh faces have also been added to the mix. Among the successful candidates in Saturday’s local election was shire president Paul Gillett, who kept his seat with 3506 votes. He was last night awaiting a council vote at a special meeting to determine if he would hold on to his position as president. Cr Gillett finished second behind Michelle Boylan, who had an impressive 3891 ballots in her favour, or roughly 17 per cent of the total vote. Cr Boylan said she was excited to be a part of the team again and continue the Shire’s projects, particularly youth-based ones. Councillors Michelle Campbell (3437) and Wendy Dickinson (3138) also retained their positions. The eight-person race for six seats also saw Joe Capogreco (2957) and Dakota Krispyn (2511) elected for their first term on the council. Mr Capogreco — who totalled 12.73 per cent of votes — thanked the community as well as everyone involved and said it would be good to get the perspective of the other newly-elected members. “I was a bit nervous early on ... but it feels good to be elected and now I can get on with the job,” he said. “It will take me a few months to get into the swing of how things operate and understanding all the different plans and procedures that they have.” Mr Krispyn — who totalled 10.81 per cent of the votes — said he was happy to be elected into his new role and was looking forward to working alongside the other councillors. “I’m very excited to work along with the other councillors, I believe the council that got elected on Saturday night is exactly what I was hoping for,” he said. James Junio missed out on a seat, coming up just short with 2369 votes. Finishing last was Tristan Payne, who was almost 1000 votes behind on 1426 — or 6.14 per cent of the total count. A vote for the shire president and the deputy shire president will take place at a special meeting where the new councillors will also to be sworn in.