CARROT RIVER — Brennan Hall will be taking over the role of Carrot River’s administrator, following Kevin Trew giving his official resignation to the town’s council.
“At this point it’s too early to comment on what changes we will be making and things like that, but I can say for sure I think I bring a different outlook,” Hall said.
“Carrot River has done a good job in the past few years here with their marketing and branding and putting out that Saskatchewan Outback brand. I really like that and think we can continue to build off that.”
Hall said one of his goals will be to grow the community through new residents, as well as providing recreation and programming.
“If we can bring in more people and develop the town and put up more housing, a higher population, there’s going to be a lot more opportunities to look into things. Maybe eventually, if we can grow the population we can look into a pool like Melfort.”
Trew, who held the position for nine years, gave his notice of resignation to council on Feb. 9, effective March 19. His last day in office will be Feb. 26.
Back in 2019, Trew informed the council of his plans to leave the role in 2020 or early 2021, so that they could begin succession planning.
In response, council placed Hall to be the future administrator with a newly formed admin-in-training position in October 2020.
Living in Warman and commuting, Hall completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree at University of Saskatchewan in 2019 with key focuses in political science and marketing.
While still attending university, in 2018, he applied for the general manager position with the Carrot River Outback Thunder hockey team.
“I was going into my last year, I was big into the hockey community doing reffing for years and years and got into the management side of it,” Hall said.
“I was still in school at the time so I did it from afar.”
After his degree, Hall relocated to Carrot River, where he continued as general manager for the Thunder and took a full-time job as an insurance adviser in Nipawin.
He would stay on as an insurance adviser for three months, before taking a part-time position with the Town of Carrot River as a program assistant for the recreation department.
“I kind of debated, I didn’t want to go to part-time from full-time,” Hall said. “They assured me that there was ample opportunity here to grow into full-time or move up. They mentioned a second part time I could eventually get, which I eventually did.”
After a month in the role, Hall was given the second position within the town as a finance accounting clerk.
He would stay in this role until October 2020 when council expressed a desire for him to be the next administrator following Kevin giving his long-term plans.
Hall said that despite his new position, he will continue acting as the Thunder’s general manager.
“Ultimately hockey is what brought me out here and provided me these opportunities, so I’m extremely grateful for that. I love the game, I love being involved, it’s just a part of me.”
Hall said that in situations where the Thunder is brought into municipal business, he intends to step aside and get someone else to represent the Thunder such as the assistant general manager or president.
“That was a concern of council’s when we first started talking about this,” he said. “I reassured council that this is my full-time job, this is my career, I’m always going to put the town first.”
Trew said he will continue to be a representative on the town’s upgraded water treatment plant project, after a request from council.
“It’s a project I’ve been working with, with our engineers and construction people as well as our public works foreman,” Trew said. “I’ll answer to Brennan. I’ll act on behalf of the Town of Carrot River in an administrative capacity.”
The project is expected to be in production in late spring.
In addition to the project, Trew said he will continue to be mentoring Hall.
“It’s truly been an honour and a privilege to work in my home community,” he said. “I really enjoyed it.”
Trew will continue serving on the North East School Division (NESD) board as a representative for Subdivision 2.
