NIPIGON - Nipigon’s mayor of 16 years, Richard Harvey, has announced that he will not be seeking reelection as mayor in the upcoming municipal election, but will instead be running for a seat on council as he says that he enjoys working from the sidelines to get things done.
“I'm very proud of everything that we'd been able to accomplish. It's amazing the things that we’ve done, but over those last couple of elections, I've had, a number of times, people have asked me if you know with such a long time as mayor if I would consider if I'd ever considered stepping aside, letting someone else have a go at it,” he said.
“And my response has always been that my main concern is the Township of Nipigon, is the well-being of the people and I am more than happy if somebody who I believe is going to be a strong candidate, If somebody who is going to be, who would do an excellent job as mayor came forward, I would be happy to step aside and move more into the background.”
James Foulds, who has been a counsellor for the Township of Nipigon for 16 years as well and mayor Harvey says that he is the person he believes will be that strong candidate.
“In the last election we had some discussions and again this time just really encouraging him to consider moving forward to run. James is a strong a committee person. He brings incredible talents and incredible gifting to this position,” said Harvey.
“So James has decided that he is going to step forward into the position of mayor this time, so you know, I'm not going anywhere, I will be moving into a position of councillor and it's my intention to continue as a councillor for the next four years to be able to bring the experience, the contacts, still to the table be able to assist in that way, but also the free up and allow me to do some other projects and work in some other areas and be that support help transition into a new direction.”
Harvey said that there are definitely some mixed emotions to be felt as he comes into this transition from mayor to running for council.
“It is something that you know I've certainly been talking about for quite some time, you know, in some ways I sort of feel and I wonder if there will be that empty void, you know, there'll be something missing as I move forward, because as I said, we've been at this for so long,” he said.
“But at the same time, there's a lot of just sorts of like, ‘OK, this is good,’ and it's good because I know that the town is going to be in good hands. I know that we have a mayor who's going to be coming, In I'm quite confident that he'll be coming in as mayor, and I know that he has incredible gifts, incredible abilities, and will be moving our community forward.”
Mayor Harvey says that he hopes that the people of Nipigon will be supportive of the new leadership that comes in as he’s sure that they have a real passion for the community.
