On July 10, 2025, the Sunbury-York South council held a meeting that lasted one minute. Acting clerk Leslie Morrell stood up, read a provincial regulation into the record, and sat back down. The regulation said the same thing in plain terms: council no longer had enough members to legally do anything. Two councillors had resigned in the previous week, the mayor was mid-suspension, and the council serving the rural community that includes Waasis, Rusagonis, Nasonworth, Beaver Dam, and Charters Settlement could no longer conduct business.
If you live in Waasis and have followed this story only in passing, this timeline summarizes the events. The timeline runs from a late-2024 request to borrow up to $8 million for a municipal building through the provincial appointment of a supervisor and the May 2026 election.
How It Got Here
Sunbury-York South is young as municipalities go. It was incorporated on January 1, 2023, folding the former local service districts of New Maryland and Rusagonis-Waasis, plus a small piece of Tracyville-Three Tree Creek, into one rural community. Waasis and Rusagonis have never had their own town hall. The council has been renting office space in Oromocto since the amalgamation.
In late 2024, then-mayor David Hayward asked the province's Municipal Capital Borrowing Board for pre-approval to borrow up to $8 million for a new municipal building. The proposal drew criticism from residents.
"I personally don't see the need to spend that sort of money," resident Jeanne Clarke-Walker told CBC's Information Morning Fredericton at the time, adding that she and her husband live rurally in part for the lower tax rate.
Another resident, Carolyn Nickerson, pointed out that the council seemed to be measuring itself against its westerly neighbor, Hanwell, despite having a different population and tax base entirely. She and others also raised concerns that roughly 30 acres of land had already been purchased for the project without much public notice. The loan request was eventually withdrawn.
The Resignations
Through the first half of 2025, the council lost people one at a time.
- In January, Councillor Susan Yarom resigned.
- In March, Councillor Gilles Turner resigned.
- Around the same period, the community's chief administrative officer, also named Turner (Marjorie), was terminated after being charged in two separate incidents involving calling police on residents who had come to the municipal office seeking public documents they were legally entitled to. She pleaded not guilty, with a court date set for August 10, 2026.
- In June, council voted that Mayor Hayward had broken the code of conduct, triggering a 90-day suspension.
- On July 3, Councillor Tegan Noble resigned.
- On July 9, Councillor Matthew Standish resigned.
A rural community council normally runs with eight members and needs five present to hit quorum. There was already one vacancy on the books before Noble and Standish left. By July 10, the math no longer worked, hence the one-minute meeting.
At that point, Hayward was expected to return after the suspension. Hayward's suspension was due to end in September, and once he returned, the remaining four councillors, Hajnalka Hartwick, Larry DeLong, Matthew Sheppard, and Cory Allen, would technically have quorum again. The Local Governance Commission's director, Mary Oley, confirmed as much: a suspended mayor still counts as a council member for quorum purposes.
That expected return did not happen.
The Supervisor Period
On September 28, 2025, instead of resuming his seat, Hayward resigned outright. With no mayor and no path back to five sitting members, the province appointed a supervisor, Greg Lutes, to run Sunbury-York South directly.
A supervisor isn't a caretaker who checks in on council meetings. Under the arrangement Oley described to CBC, once a supervisor is appointed, the remaining elected councillors cannot act as councillors at all. The supervisor becomes the council. Lutes held the role until October 27, 2025, and a second appointed supervisor carried it from there until the next municipal election.
Councillor Cory Allen, one of the four remaining councillors, said Hayward's resignation surprised him. He told CBC he was "absolutely shocked, first of all, stunned." From late September 2025 until a new council was sworn in, the appointed supervisor handled local council decisions.
The 2026 Election
New Brunswick held municipal elections across the province in May 2026, and Sunbury-York South's own statement on the timeline noted that the earliest a new council could take the oath of office was May 23, 2026, the earliest point the supervisor's authority would end.
Voters had a clear choice on the ballot: Cory Allen, the councillor who had stayed on through the resignations, the suspension, and the supervisor period, running against Larry DeLong, who had served as deputy mayor and acting mayor during parts of that period. Allen won by roughly 600 votes, a decisive margin for a rural community election.
Where Things Stand Now
If you have been out of the loop, here is the short version for anyone in Waasis today. Sunbury-York South has an elected mayor and council again as of late May 2026, ending the longest stretch the rural community has gone without local representation since it was created. The municipal office is still a rented space in Oromocto rather than a purpose-built town hall, which means the underlying question that started all of this in 2024, where and how this community should eventually house its own government, has not actually been settled. It has just been paused while everyone caught their breath.
The former CAO's charges were still open as of her last scheduled court appearance, set for August 10, 2026. We don't have confirmation of how that hearing went, but it's worth knowing if you see the case referenced in future council minutes or local reporting.
None of this changes what makes Waasis worth living in day to day. It does explain why your council seemed to vanish for the better part of a year, and why the name on the mayor's door changed the way it did. If you want the fuller picture of what makes this stretch of the Sunbury-York South corridor tick, the Waasis neighborhood guide and the Rusagonis guide cover the parts of daily life this post didn't touch.
Got questions about what any of this means for your corner of the community, or just want to talk through what's actually going on around here? Megan Gallant has lived in this area for more than 30 years and is always happy to compare notes. Let's Talk.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
