Paul Jenkins will chair his last Bancroft Town Council next Tuesday.
He first assumed the role of mayor when Bernice Jenkins resigned in 2017 for health reasons.
Jenkins was elected to the top post in 2018, receiving just under 60 per cent of the vote.
He spent six years as a councillor before taking over council’s top spot.
Jenkins said the biggest accomplishment of council over the years is the town’s financial stability.
“We basically eliminated the debt that shows up on the tax roll. We still have some on our sewage treatment plant, but that’s paid by the water and sewer users and we have built up our reserves fairly substantially.”
He added the town is on solid financial ground, something that has allowed it to make necessary infrastructure investments.
“Getting the financial house in order has allowed us to do a whole lot of other things like our big downtown revitalization project. Now you see businesses upgrading their storefronts. Traffic continues to grow and we have between five and six million vehicle trips per year.”
Jenkins said while there may be traffic headaches as a result of growth, it’s all part of being successful. He added the town has also seen gains in its housing stock.
“We’ve had a number of apartment buildings put up and a lot of single-family dwellings. We all need more affordable housing, but that’s another story but we did see Inspiration Place built which is a combination of the library and four floors of affordable housing.”
He added considerable upgrades at the arena will result in lower operating costs and a new water tower is in the works with reserves set aside to pay for it.
Jenkins said aside from the government piece of being mayor he will also remember working closely with community groups and their dedicated volunteers.
“Government can not do everything alone. It’s the people, the organizations, and having the relationships with them and doing whatever we can to get support for them to do their work. Just a huge shout out and thank you to the people I have worked with from community groups.”
Jenkins said he’s done all he can as mayor and it’s time for someone else to take the town to the next level.
Tracy McGibbon was elected mayor of Bancroft last month.
Jenkins did hint at what he plans to do in the future.
“There is a great need for us as a society to figure out the issues of homelessness, housing and food insecurity. Not sure what I am going to get involved with, but it’ll be something.”
