Council realigns, appoints councillor

By Nate Smelle

Council has announced that acting mayor Paul Jenkins will be officially taking over for former mayor Bernice Jenkins. During the special meeting, council also named Councillor Charles Mullett as Bancroft's new deputy mayor. Both the newly appointed mayor and deputy mayor expressed their enthusiasm to continue serving the town in their new roles moving forward. Since the shuffling of councillors still left one empty seat at the table, council informed the press that they would most likely appoint a new councillor at their next meeting, once they had a chance to ask the candidate if he would be willing to take on the position.

Not wasting any time at the meeting on Dec. 12, council introduced their appointee, Councillor Wayne Wiggins. Wiggins has previously served two terms on Bancroft Council – one four-year term as deputy mayor and one three-year term as councillor – also serving on 20 municipal committees. He currently sits on the Quinte Health Advisory committee, chairs the Spirit of Bancroft committee, volunteers at Bancroft North Hastings Heritage Museum and is the vice-president of the Algonquin Shrine Club. Jenkins expects Wiggins's past years of service on council to help him fit in quickly.

“I am pleased that Wayne has accepted our offer for a seat on council,” said Jenkins. “With the relatively short amount of time left in the current term Wayne's experience will be especially beneficial.”

Wiggins said he was very glad to be back on council, however he was experiencing some mixed emotions, “I'm very happy that I have the chance to work for the town and the citizens of Bancroft again, but at the same time I'm somewhat sad that I have to do it at the cost of losing Bernice Jenkins, who has worked tirelessly for this town.”

He added, “I just wish her nothing but success and good health going forward. I'm very proud to be back proud to work at it and hopefully I can bring something more to the table.”

Wiggins said he is looking forward to working on improvements to community safety, and encouraging economic development.

Recognizing some of the difficulties council has had this past term Wiggins said, “I think that Council has been struggling, but they've been doing the best with what they have to work with, so I give him kudos. I'll support them in any way that I can, and do whatever they ask to help them.”