Ally Lewis joined the Town of Fort Frances as Communications Coordinator and Deputy Clerk in the spring and is learning the ropes of working for municipal government.
Lewis comes to Fort Frances from the Kitchener-Waterloo (K-W) region, where she most recently worked in Elmira after growing up in Georgetown, closer to the Greater Toronto Area.
Lewis studied public relations at Conestoga but was most recently working as a receptionist, so she was anxious to start working in the field she had studied in.
“So I was a receptionist at a financial services company, and then this job popped up and it was specifically looking for someone with a background in PR communications so I kind of jumped on the opportunity,” she said.
On moving across Ontario for work, Lewis said she was keen to take some advice she’d been given.
“I’d been told previously that if you have the opportunity to move for work and you have nothing tying you down you should absolutely do it, if there’s no good reason not to do it then you should take it,” She said.
“That was kind of my motivation for seeking work outside the K-W area and southern Ontario area, because it just seemed like there’s more opportunities out there and I shouldn’t limit myself just because I like having a 30-minute commute.”
The new commute is much shorter and she appreciates being close to the water as well.
“I’m constantly bragging about how much I save on gas,” she said.
“I love how close we are to the water, it’s beautiful, I’m right around the corner from (the river) which is great.”
Lewis says adapting to her work with the Town has been a great experience and the Town staff have been a pleasure to work with.
“The people that I work with are wonderful,” she said.
“It’s really nice to see a larger staff get along so well so consistently. I’ve worked at a lot of smaller staffed places and even then you have butting heads and conflict and stuff. It’s so nice, everyone gets along so well here. I feel amazingly supported, especially being so new, which is great. My boss is great, our mayor is great, our CAO is wonderful. I cannot speak more highly about the people that I work with, and I love the job too.”
Lewis’ job includes updating the Town’s social media platforms, and website as well as drafting press releases. The other aspect of her role is assisting the town clerk which can include helping with council meetings, acting as a Commissioner of Oaths and conducting civil marriage ceremonies which is a service that the town provides among other duties.
As part of her work Lewis says she’s learning a lot about the inner workings of municipal government.
“It’s definitely a lot of discussion, and it really surprises me how quickly some things move and then how slow other things move,” she said.
“You’ll have that with any job but it’s kind of really fun to see when we put something together and then it goes to council and it gets approved and we’re like ‘oh my gosh we have this new project greenlit, it’s amazing.’”
Lewis also remarked at how interwoven Town processes are.
“It’s never just one person doing one thing, there’s always input from other people on it,” she said.
“You realize how it interacts with other people, how different departments handle different things, which is cool. It makes it a really collaborative environment.”
Lewis hopes to be able to work with residents to help them communicate what they want to see from the town as well.
“I’m constantly thinking of what do the people here want to see, what are people looking for, what can we do that makes them go ‘oh I really like what our town did for that.’ or ‘I’m really happy with how this has gone in town for X, Y, or Z,’” she said.
Lewis will likely also play a role in the town’s upcoming decisions around potential rebranding with the Town’s slogan being changed.
In her spare time Lewis says she’s a bit like an old lady.
“I’m secretly 95 years old,” she said.
“I’m a big reader, I like to crochet. The house I’m in has a nice deck in the backyard, so I spend an awful lot of time out there playing the game of getting sunburned and healing the sunburn then getting sunburned again.”
She’s also looking forward to exploring the outdoors a bit more as well.
“I’m definitely looking to explore more,” she said.
“I’d like to check out the 8th Street Trails, I’m hoping to get there sometime when it’s not going to be super hot and super buggy. I’m definitely a homebody for sure. But I’m hoping to get out a little bit more here, the more I settle in.”
