Steele aims to show his mettle in Port
Veteran councillor replacing John Maloney as head of lakeside city’s council
Bill Steele may have deep roots in the Port Colborne and, like many candidates, may have put up a lot of signs, but the newly elected mayor said the difference was at the door.
A former councillor for 17 years, Steele handily won Monday night’s election, taking 2,634 votes to challenger Betty Konc’s 1,932 and Wayne Elliott’s 1,789. Ron St. Jean received 249 votes.
Steele attributes his win to his big and varied tent of volunteers, including youths, middle aged and seniors, who made the commitment to go door to door with him, hitting every home in every ward, listening to people’s concerns and taking their information.
“That’s what wins elections,” he said. “Elections are won at the door. You can have as many signs as you want, you can spend as much as you want in advertising. It’s won at the door. And I think that’s where we won.”
Speaking to his supporters at his campaign headquarters at the train station, Steele laid out a few promises going forward. Tax cuts was not one of them, he said, adding anyone who flat out promised to lower taxes was full of it.
He did, though, make a bold
promise on another high-profile front, namely water bills.
“Water rates are going to be better, that’s a fact,” he said. “We’re going to fix that.”
Steele said getting a handle on the city’s stubbornly high water loss rate is not out of reach; it simply involves taking a lot at what staff has already reported on. He said the issue is most likely, the connections between city services and homes, meaning the city will need painstakingly check each one, starting in the older areas first.
“We need to get to work on that,” he said. “We need to find the leaks. We need to get the leaks stopped and move on. It’s not going to be done overnight. People are going to have to be patient. But we’re going to get our water bills to slowly go down.”
Steele said other priorities are getting the public and the police on the same page in tackling downtown vandalism and petty crime, and being more welcome to investment, including from businesses existing in the city.
Elsewhere, current Ward 4 councillor Barbara Butters was successful in her run for a regional seat, getting 3,304 votes.
In Ward 1, Mark Bagu and Donna Kalailieff defeated incumbent Dave Elliott. In Ward 2, young newcomer Eric Beauregard and incumbent Angie Desmarais were elected. In Ward 3, Frank Danch returned and is joined by former councillor Gary Bruno. And in Ward 4, incumbent Ron Bodner was re-elected and is joined by Harry Wells.