A close, recorded vote last night (Monday) secured how New Tecumseth residents will elect a new 10-member council in the 2010 municipal election.

New Tecumseth council voted to add another councillor in Alliston and to divide that community into four wards, with each ward electing one councillor. The rest of the town is divided into four wards, (including Green Briar/Briar Hill) with one councillor for each ward. The deputy mayor and mayor will still be elected at large.

The wards are different than the option council was considering at its last meeting.

This week council voted for Beeton and Tottenham wards that essentially represent the urban limits of each community. One councilor each for a rural north ward and rural south ward will make up the rest of council.

While this option is the best for rural representation, there was concern that the layout is similar to the pre-amalgamation look of the town.

"We're doing something here that's really going to hurt the town, that's going to take away community spirit," said Tottenham Coun. Jim Stone.

The rural south ward will be from the 6th Line south, but not including Tottenham, which is the new Ward 8.

The rural north ward is from the 6th Line north to the 13th Line, not including Beeton, the new Ward 6. The rural north ward also includes an area from Highway 89 south, between the 15th Sideroad and the town's eastern limits.

A bylaw for the new ward boundaries has to be in place by Jan. 1, 2010. In order to allow for appeals to be dealt with prior to the fall 2010 election, a town bylaw needs to be passed by the end of this month.

Council voted for a ward boundary review last November and consultant Robert J. Williams completed it. Since then there have been public meetings, a questionnaire available on the town's website and last week's committee of the whole meeting for residents to speak out for or against the options. The meetings didn’t draw very many people.

"I think the process failed, that's how I look at it, and I'd like to see it deferred," said Stone.

He wanted town staff to send a questionnaire out in the water bills, for example, to get more feedback from residents, a process that could take up to three months. The deferral was defeated.

At last week's meeting, council appeared to be steering towards a different option that would have seen the rural councillor cover all rural parts of the town, from Highway 89 to Highway 9, and from the east and west boundaries of the town.

After last week's meeting former councillor Donna Jebb wrote an email to council expressing her concern about the direction council was going.

"I currently sit on a provincial board and I represent Simcoe, Grey and Bruce, and it is difficult to get over to the other two counties to meet with the members of the organization that I represent. I think that spreading a councillor from Highway 89 down to Highway 9 would be very difficult to have good representation and communication with all the residents of that ward," wrote Jebb in the email.

The recorded vote saw Mayor Mike MacEachern, Coun. Jess Prothero, Coun. Dennis Egan, Coun. Richard Norcross and Coun. Jamie Smith vote in favour of the new ward system. Deputy Mayor Rick Milne, Coun. Barbara Huson, Stone and Coun. Christine Brayford voted against it.