The municipal election is just over a month away and the race for mayor in Essex is heating up. Tuesday morning, two candidates vying for the top job faced off on the Kyle Horner Show on AM800. Incumbent Sherry Bondy is seeking another term while her opponent, 35-year resident of Essex, Trevor Menard, is looking to take the mayor’s chair. Rob Shepley has been acclaimed as Deputy Mayor, but there’s no shortage of competition elsewhere in Essex as voters head to the polls. Six candidates are vying for two seats in Ward 1. Three are running for one seat in Ward 2. Six more are fighting for two seats in Ward 3, while three candidates are battling for one seat in Ward 4. At the top of the ballot is Bondy and Menard. Incumbent mayor Bondy is seeking a second term and says she’s proud of what her council has accomplished. “We’ve done a town hall addition expansion. We’ve also sold ELK Energy and have a solid investment strategy. Now we have a capital roads plan,” she told CTV News. Flooding has been a major issue during her first term, with two significant events. “I want to ensure that development is going where we’re not going to flood out existing homes or future homes. that’s number one,” she said. Affordability is also top of mind for voters with Bondy saying long-term financial planning is a key. “The second thing we need to do is look at how we’re investing our money to make sure that we’re having long term investments so that we’re stabilizing tax increases,” Bondy added. Bondy also wants to see more commercial and industrial development, particularly in Essex Centre and Harrow. “Can we look at investing in commercial and industrial space in our two urban centres, that being Harrow and Essex Centre?” she questioned. “That’s a big priority of mine going forward and looking at long term planning.” Bondy’s opponent, Menard, says the town needs to strengthen its industrial base and focus tax dollars on core infrastructure. “Capital projects, we should be seeing our roads, our sewers, that’s where our tax dollars should be focused in repairing the big flooding issues in the south and we need to get government funding to assist us in those,” he said. Menard also points to affordability and community safety, including what he says are growing pressures on local resources. “We’re starting to see some of the mental health issues take strain on the residents and the people that we’re bringing into our community where we don’t have a lot of resources to help them, like we don’t have transit,” he said. Menard is campaigning on change and says growth is part of the solution. “We haven’t had a lot of improvement. some of our water mains and our roadways haven’t been improved over the past four years and some of them haven’t improved in 30 years,” he said. The election is slated for Oct. 26.
