It was a whirlwind 2020 for the Mayor of Ignace.
Penny Lucas took over the helm in April after Don Cunningham resigned over concerns surrounding negative viral comments made on social media.
“The Township’s entire Administration staff had resigned and our staff compliment had to be rebuilt from the ground up. Fortunately we were able to fill the positions with experienced employees, a lot of whom had worked previously for the Municipality in one capacity or another.”
Lucas notes the new hires all have a vested interest in the success of the community and are also long-time residents.
She says COVID-19 added to the staffing challenges.
“Our public restrooms at the Township Tourism Centre were used to capacity by the travelling public and there seemed to be a lot of them this summer. We calculated some $22,000 worth of water and sewer used by the travelling public.”
Lucas adds “We had to up our game on keeping the washrooms cleaned, stocked and repaired. Our parking lot was full before dawn and halfway through the night from May to November. We even had to bring in a couple of porta potties for some time and I would like to thank Mr. McKay for a prompt response to that dilemma.”
There were plenty of positives in Ignace despite a challenging year.
Lucas says “Year end we were fortunate enough to secure the services of a Chief Building Official. So as soon as anyone wants to start ‘getting at er’ we’ll begin construction again. We didn’t do much this year (2020)”
She adds great strides were made in beautification efforts as well as a badly needed paint job for their float plane in the Ignace plaza.
To hear more from Mayor Penny Lucas, visit the Audio link below.
