The swearing in of Ward 3 Councillor Ron Rogers came sooner than expected.
He was originally set to be sworn in Nov. 6, but council moved the ceremony to Monday's budget meeting at the Harrow and Colchester South Community Arena.
.@EssexON officially swears in Ward 3 Councillor Ron Rogers at the Harrow & Colchester South Community Centre. #cklw pic.twitter.com/vtfThREaRj
— Gord Bacon (@baconAM800) October 30, 2017
The former councillor has 11-years-experience in municipal politics, last serving in 2010. He says moving things up so he could attend the budge meeting is a smart move.
"I'm looking forward to the interaction with the other councillors and the mayor and deputy mayor," says Rogers. "I've met with a couple of the staff already today and discussed a couple of issue that have been brought to my attention over the past few days by rate-payers."
Rogers plans to push for overdue improvements.
"One of my objectives is increased spending on our infrastructure that has been neglected over the past while," he says. "We certainly have a number of roads that need some attention and drainage is certainly an issue."
The town needs to focus on its strengths, according to Rogers.
"The great accomplishments that have been going on with the expansions of wineries and breweries, and so forth, we need to focus on that, promote it and help our town grow," he says.
Rogers received 555 of the 1067 total votes cast in the town's by-election on Oct. 23, beating out Rodney Hammond, Richard Kokovai and Mike Jenner to win the seat.
He replaces Bill Caixiero, who resigned for personal reasons in July. Rogers says he plans to run for the seat again in 2018.