april_2018

142 143 BVM: Mayor McNamara, you’ve been in office since 2003– a good long run. Are you happy with the results so far and what are your goals for Tecumseh going forward? McNamara: “The goal is to continue building on our sustainability, that’s been the key to our success. It hasn’t been easy. In southwestern Ontario we’re heavily dependent on manu- facturing, and the global meltdown in 2008/09 was very stressful on our business community and residents. But we were positioned prior to that to absorb some of the impact through the Planned Asset Management program we started in 2004. “It’s given us the flexibil- ity to weather some bumps. That recession was a big one. Out of 300 tool and mold businesses, 51 were idled, struggling to pay their taxes. So, we carried a lot of them over five or six years. The good news is every one of them is up to date on their taxes, the 51 buildings are all up and running, and we’ve had new additions, since. Those were happy outcomes being Mayor. And it’s the philosophy of the town, too, that you must be firm but not to the point where it affects your constitu- ency. We’re here to help to a certain degree and in the long run it paid off.” BVM: Does community consultation play a role in municipal decision making? McNamara: “We’re not afraid to reach out to our TECUMSEH, ONTARIO constituency. Every other year we do a citizen satisfaction survey with some pretty tough ques- tions about the services. For example: Do you feel you get good value for your tax dollars? Are you pleased with policing, fire, waste pickup, recycling, recreational facilities, etc.? In the last three years, we averaged about a 98 percent approval rating. It’s a great tool to learn where we can improve our servicing delivery. The survey covered qual- ity of life issues and we wanted to make sure it reached not only seniors, but young adults and young families. They were asked specific ques- tions about where they reside in the municipality to make sure all four wards were covered– from rural to the densely populated areas.” Racicot: “Results are taken from 400 calls made by the survey company.We also received about 200 online responses and those were used for follow-up on topics such as public safety. People were concerned that there wasn’t enough of a police presence in the community.We took that back to the OPP and worked with them on in- creasing their visibility and taking care of some troublesome spots in town.” BVM: Last year you were anticipating additional residential development. Has that happened? McNamara: “Two of those big subdivisions are almost full, so we’re opening up other lands for residential growth. In the old town core, there’s been a significant uptake in terms of dollars for community improvement. On the books, we have two condominium developments in the planning stage. In another part of town, there’s a 71-unit condo and marine development coming to coun-