Amherstburg deputy mayor won’t seek re-election
Now that Amherstburg deputy mayor Bart DiPasquale is retiring from politics, Mayor Aldo DiCarlo is going to have to drive himself to county council meetings.
The pair would often carpool to the meetings at the Essex County Civic Centre and DiPasquale, a police officer for nearly four decades before entering politics, was always behind the wheel. “He’s given back to the community in so many different ways,” said DiCarlo, citing DiPasquale’s extensive volunteer efforts. “He has a wealth of knowledge going back decades. He knows who’s who and what’s what and what worked and what didn’t work.” DiPasquale, 64, started working for the town when he was just 16, grooming baseball diamonds. He landed a summer job riding on the back of a town garbage truck and, in 1974, started walking the beat as a police officer, a career that spanned 35 years until he retired as deputy chief in 2009.
He was elected as a town councillor in 2010 and elected deputy mayor in 2014, beating out two other candidates and winning nearly 56 per cent of the vote. He announced his retirement from politics at Monday’s council meeting and received a standing ovation. “After 35 years of policing and eight years of politics, I can feel it,” laughed DiPasquale. “I’m not a spring chicken anymore.” DiPasquale plans on spending more time with his wife Carmen and their three grandchildren but concedes the leisurely lifestyle might not take. “I have to keep myself busy because that’s what I like to do,” said DiPasquale. “I may pop up again somewhere. Who knows?” DiPasquale credited town CAO John Miceli for doing “a heck of a great job” in a town that only a few years ago was making headlines for financial mismanagement and ballooning debt.
“Our community wasn’t in the best of shape and we did a fine job of turning it around. It’s a whole different world. It’s come a long way,” said DiPasquale.