Goderich councillors were joined by several guests on August 14, as they unveiled a plaque in the courtyard in front of the town hall to recognize the thirty years of dedication to the town by former mayor, Deb Shewfelt.
In that time Shewfelt served as Mayor, Warden and worked with many MPs and MPPs for the benefit of the town. Shewfelt says it was a great run and adds he had good councils good people around him, and the people supported them.
Shewfelt says one of the biggest challenges he faced was resolving the problem of the sewage running into the lake.
“I think the challenge with the sewage in the lake tied in with what was happening in the rural areas and people were very excited, and it had been going on for years and it was time. We did get a warning from the federal government that maybe charges would be laid," Shewfelt remembered.
Shewfelt says he met with Federal officials over at the PUC.
“I met with them over at the PUC and I said give me three years, give me three years and we'll get it corrected. I went back to council and said this has to be fixed. And we got it fixed and I believe that that helped. There's still lots of work to do because there's still pollution coming off the land," added Shewfelt.
The other obvious event that no one who was in Goderich at the time will forget, was the tornado in 2011. Shewfelt says that situation could have been much worse had it not been for the storm in the summer of 1995. He says after that, they took storm preparation very seriously in Goderich and so they were at least a little bit better prepared than they might have been otherwise.