Tripp heads up the road

Fort Erie’s loss is St . Catharines’ gain.

The City of St. Catharines has nabbed the Town of Fort Erie’s stand-in top bureaucrat, as the city announced Thursday it has hired Ron Tripp as director of transportation and environmental services.

Tripp is currently Fort Erie’s infrastructure director, but he has been pinch-hitting as interim chief administrative officer for the past year-and-a-half.

Tripp’s last day with Fort Erie is April 3.

He will start his new job with St. Catharines April 8.

The town will start recruiting for his successor immediately.

“Ron has done an outstanding job for the municipality both in his role as director, where he was highly regarded by his peers in the engineering community, and most recently leading us through a transition period as chief administrative officer,” said Mayor Doug Martin in a statement Thursday.

Martin has been a longtime Tripp supporter — so much so in December he quit a town hall panel formed to recruit a new CAO because he thought Tripp should be offered the position permanently rather than the town considering other candidates.

According to the latest Ontario Public Sector Salary Disclosure list, Tripp’s salary, as interim CAO, was $137,276.

Tripp has been interim CAO since August 2011, when former manager Harry Schlange took a new job outside the region.

Tripp took over as Fort Erie’s director of infrastructure services in April 2005.

The town’s statement says under his direction, Fort Erie completed many infrastructure projects, such as the $28-million Frenchman’s Creek Trunk Sewer, which opened up land for both residential and employment development.

“I was privileged to be part of a fantastic team who achieve so much everyday with limited resources,” Tripp said in the statement. “The town staff is an incredibly capable and devoted group of people. I will also miss working alongside mayor Martin. His unwavering care for this community and his commitment to its success are unmatched.”