A Teulon councillor will continue to make a difference in local communities after stepping down from his role as an elected official and starting a new chapter in his professional journey.
Michael Hepples has accepted the role of executive director of the South Interlake Regional Library district. On Friday, April 10, he resigned from his role on Teulon council.
“I served on Teulon council since October of 2022. I loved the impact that it allowed me to have on our community and the first-hand look it afforded me to how municipal government operates,” he said.
“The thing I will miss most is sitting down with residents to hear their ideas and concerns, and being able to take that back to the council table as a real agent for change.”
Chris Yuen, chief administrative officer for the Town of Teulon, said the councillor position will remain vacant until the municipal election this fall.
“While he will be missed at our council table,” Yuen said, “we are pleased that his expertise will remain within our regional library system.”
Hepples started his new role with the regional library on Jan. 19 and had been managing as the acting director since November following the departure of prior director Andrea McCrimmon.
“The library has always played a major role in my life, since early school days on the Bookmobile, the Teulon library — back when it was just a little brick building on Main Street — and the first thing I did when I relocated my family back to Teulon was sign us all up for our library cards,” Hepples said.
“When I joined council and had the opportunity to join the library board, it was an immediate yes from me. During my time managing the library as acting director while the search was happening for a replacement, I got a real opportunity to get immersed in how the library operates, and the fantastic people that make it work, and really wanted to be a more permanent part of that.”
As an avid reader, Hepples usually has some type of reading material with him wherever he goes.
“I get to do plenty of reading for knowledge but do a lot of my reading for relaxation,” he said, “so I tend to prefer fiction as my go-to read, with a heavy bent towards horror, science fiction and fantasy.”
Looking ahead, he sees a bright future for the regional library.
“There is a lot of opportunity ahead for the South Interlake Regional Library, with the recent addition of St. Laurent to our regional partnership, the expansion of services to their area, and the changing landscape of the library world in today’s social and technological landscape,” he said.
“We have a real opportunity to provide meaningful community impact and a staff that believes in that idea completely, and I’m very excited to work with this great group of staff, municipal and community partners to deliver as much impact and value as possible.”
For local community members, Hepples would like to remind them that the library branches do much more than just lend out books.
“We also provide a wide variety of programming for all ages and services like photocopying, scanning, printing and faxing. Our staff are a great information resource, frequently helping patrons locate the info they are seeking,” he said.
“We are also always open to requests and suggestions. If there is something you’d like to see, we are always up for the challenge of seeing how we might be able to deliver that within our mandate.”
