Scott Crick says he has mixed feelings about being acclaimed to a second term as Mayor for the Town of Morris. Crick won the position after no other candidates stepped forward to run in the October 26th municipal election.
"Being acclaimed, I mean that's great and obviously it does represent a certain confidence or belief in the individual, but at the same time, we do have a democratic process, and as much as I feel very much honoured to receive that second term, it's a little challenging in municipal office right now," said Crick. "I think we know, after the last three years, it's become incredibly challenging, or even more challenging, and we see that throughout the region. Seeing seats that are not filled, and lots of seats being filled through acclamation."
Looking ahead to his second term set to start October 27th, Crick says he plans to carry on with a number of priorities started in the last four years.
"I think back naively to 2019, and how happy I believe myself and Council were at the time," said Crick. "To think of the great we'd made, already, on a lot of the things we wanted to do within four years, and we were already getting really good progress on them after one year. And of course, as we know, we had the COVID pandemic, we had a flood this last year, we had a threat of flood for two years, as well as one year of drought. I don't want to say things are conspiring against us, but I think in terms of where we saw opportunities for success in the town, we certainly got eighty to ninety percent of the way there, and now we just (need) to get at that last 20 percent to get us over the hump."
Those priorities include assisted living, affordable housing, further development of the town's industrial park and the creation of a 10-year strategic plan. Crick would also like for Council to find a way to get involved, or help, the Morris Early Learning Centre establish a building project, and he'd like to see a shovel in the ground in the next four years. As well, the Mayor wants to find ways of increasing the tenancy rate at the Morris Multi-Plex in order to increase the Town's cost-recovery rate on the facility.
Crick isn't intimated by this long list.
"It's one thing at a time, and again, let's use everybody's talents and have everybody working on it. I know on a lot of these subjects there's a high level of community involvement. It'll just be a matter of making sure we've got the community engagement in place, and let's get people involved and helping pull on the rope."