Council passed a bylaw Monday night to hire Mark McCaig as the new CAO of the Town of Fort Frances.
McCaig, who also is CEO and president of the Fort Frances Power Corp., has been acting CAO since Bill Naturkach retired Sept. 30.
McCaig will resign from his position with the FFPC as of May 1, but continue to assist the corporation until a new CEO there is hired.
Council, as a whole, decided who the new CAO would be, noted Mayor Dan Onichuk, who added he felt McCaig “is going to do a great job.”
Council began interviewing the shortlist of CAO applicants in late February.
These final interviews included the CAO selection committee consisting of Mayor Onichuk and Couns. Roy Avis and Neil Kabel, as well as the rest of council (Tannis Drysdale, Struchan Gilson, Todd Hamilton, and Rick Wiedenhoeft).
Although the town has been without a permanent CAO since Sept. 30, Mayor Onichuk previously had stressed the selection process must not be rushed and should leave no doubt in councillors’ minds that they made the right choice.
The candidates for the job were trimmed to a shortlist of three at the end of January, at which time the finalists were approved by council to move on to the interview process.
The selection committee first met a half-dozen applicants for the position Jan. 9 in Thunder Bay.
A “headhunter” from the consulting firm of Wescott Thomas, which was retained by the town a few months ago as executive search consultant for the purpose of finding candidates for the position of CAO, initially had located more than 20 possible people for job, then narrowed it down to eight.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
