After Mayor Dan Marchisella’s defeat at the polls Monday evening Elliot Lake today requested comment from the outgoing mayor about his term and how he felt about leaving the mayoral chair he has held for eight years. Here is his response.
I believe everything happens for a reason, and although I was indeed disappointed about the results, I was also a bit relieved. I will now be able to spend time with my family and actually take a holiday uninterrupted, it’s been eight years.
I was able to proudly serve my country and help people while working with the Canadian Forces. I was then given the honour of serving our amazing community for another eight years being able to help many people locally. I’ve been blessed with an amazing support structure in our community including that of my family, wife Misty and my children. I couldn’t ask for more.
Through these last eight years, my dedicated staff and some really great council members worked with me toward growing our community and our economy. We saw for the first time since the mines closed our population increased along with four new commercial builds. Commercial and residential properties were sold with covenants to build over the next two years.
We’ve rebuilt the boat launch with an awesome pier and revitalized the lookout tower. We’ve repaired trails and added to the parks. We also replaced six roads in town amongst many other initiatives. But the piece I’m most proud of is the fact that we’ve created such a great relationship with our friends at Serpent River First Nation, which I hope the new council can build on.
This was definitely the strangest election I’ve ever seen, it’s been compared to a game of chess, but the board was extremely dirty. Social media played a big role with misinformation that some of us couldn’t respond to, along with some pretty distasteful comments coming from rumours while going door to door. This was completely unexpected and unfortunate.
Our council has built city reserves up to over $26 million dollars with purses for roads, infrastructure, facilities, accessibility and recreation. It’s my hope that the incoming council will be able to follow through with this work and build upon it over the next four years.
We also have created relationships with investors who want to build a few new apartment buildings, housing and even a new hotel on the highway for increasing tourism.
Again I hope a new council embraces this growth and continues with good relationships and open doors.
In congratulations to the newly elected, I wish the community the best of luck for the future, and I will continue to contribute what I can from the sidelines.
Lastly, I wish to thank Elliot Lakers for your support over the years, I’ve worked with great staff, councillors and many amazing volunteers.