I have lived in Fort Frances for more than 38 years. I am married to my wife Laurel and have three children. My two boys live in Fort Frances with their wives and various children whom I am proud to say call me Grandpa. My daughter lives in Thunder Bay with her children and grandchildren, which makes me a broad based Grandpa and a great grandpa. Although I feel that I am too young to be a great grandfather, they all do me proud. I moved here from Thunder Bay where I ran a small welding shop while at the same time worked all over Northwestern Ontario as an Ironworker. I completed my apprenticeship training at George Brown College in Toronto and have been a member of the Ironworkers union for more than fifty years. Shortly after relocating to Fort Frances I started L&K Construction and ran that successful company for more than 30 years. After being on Town Council for several years I wrapped up L&K to apply more time and effort to our town. I was on Council for 11 years having won a seat in a bye election in early 2008. During my time on Council I was a member of every executive committee at one time or another and was chair on Administration and Finance for six years and was chair of Community Services for a term. I was a member of DSSAB for ten years where I spent four years as chair and several years as vice chair. I served on the Rainy River District Municipal Association ending my term as its President, and served on NOMA as the Vice Chair from RRDMA.
This election of Fort Frances Town Council is foremost about Leadership, positive leadership. Fort Frances needs to get back on track with a leader who can help put negative attitudes behind us and move forward in a positive light. We need to be in the public eye and in the press for positive reasons and stop the infighting on Council that we have witnessed as of late and has dragged Fort Frances down almost to a stand still. There is more to our annual town budget than another increase in residential taxation. We need to get economic development back on track and work towards results for commercial and industrial businesses locating here, to help take the pressure off of the residents. We must fill some key positions on administration to help in the task at hand. Those that we employ are being stretched to their limits. Burnout at our town hall is real, not just a story.
Too many residential streets have fallen into such disrepair that they are hazardous to navigate. Normal driving on them is all but impossible. Waiting for the asset management plan to catch up to the situation is not realistic. We need to do some real reconstruction now. Patching patches is old news and it does not work.
So those three items is my basic platform. More of an agenda than a platform, but that is what needs immediate attention. Vote for me Ken Perry as your next mayor.
