The Town of Swan River is in another period of transition as CAO Derek Poole stepped out of his role and away from the Town of Swan River this week, making way for the incoming CAO that is scheduled to begin his duties in March.
Mayor Lance Jacobson announced the hiring of Will Tewnion last week. Tewnion is a retired RCMP member who worked in Swan River once before as Detachment Commander from 2007 to 2010, and is excited to return back. For the past five years, he has worked in various Director roles with the Yukon Government.
Until Tewnion is able to return to Swan River, Darren Harvey has been appointed Interim CAO. Harvey was otherwise working as the Director of Public Works.
Poole’s exit from the Town of Swan River ends a 16 year tenure that saw him start as Superintendent of Public Works when he was 28 years old. He kept that role for 12 years. During that time he had some stints serving as Interim CAO until finally taking on the job full time in 2021.
“I was young for the position but now I’m 42 and have 16 years of Municipal Administration under my belt,” said Poole. “I’ve achieved a lot and I’m proud of it.”
During his time as Superintendent of Public Works and later Director of Public Works, Poole was focused, of course, on public works but also the utility, which saw a lot of improvements during Poole’s time.
“I did what any manager would do, I did a large assessment, and discovered that the number one priority was the utility, the lift stations, the lagoon, the well control sites,” said Poole. “All of it was aging. That was the focus for a good 10 years to get everything retrofitted. It took millions of dollars of grants. It was lot of work but the people didn’t really see it because it was a lot of underground work and might only see it at budget time.”
Even during crisis times when the Ross Lift Station failed in 2012 during the Manitoba Summer Games or in 2018 when a well control site failed, Poole sees the management of those crises as one his proudest moments because, through careful water management and conservation from everyone that uses the utility, the Town was able to make it through that time without a boil water advisory.
“Everyone did what they were supposed to do,” he said. “Even council was able to help get an O-ring that we needed for one of our wells that we could only locate in Phoenix, Arizona. Council did what they had to do to get a plane to cross the border through customs directly from Chicago to Swan River.”
Once he stepped into the role of CAO, he found it to be, naturally, more political, and did a lot of work in updating policies and bylaws.
“We did full reviews of our bylaws and policies, everything from the enforcement of it, to the filing of them, so it’s easily changeable when its time to review it for council,” said Poole. “It’s so important for our operation and it saves time, keep everything running smoothly and your employees can enforce a policy without a fear of missing a process.
“There has also been changes in the general professionalism of the Town of Swan River and how council carries itself. That of course I can’t take the credit for that, as Mayor Jacobson deserves credit for that. It was his vision and I implemented it through orientations with council and we got our strategic plan fixed, a proper one with objectives.”
Looking back on his tenure as leader of the Town’s administration, he sees the Town of Swan River being put in a positive light.
“A lot of the time, if you’re struggling, it’s in the news and it’s loud,” he said. “Your failures are in the news. I don’t believe that was us. I believe we were in the news for things that we controlled. We spoke loudly and lobbied loudly. We weren’t so much in the news for HR issues or legal battles. And, we do have our fair share of legal issues, but not because of operational missteps.
“During my tenure, I feel I wasn’t loud as a leader. Behind the scenes, everyone was doing their job.
“I think the Town’s greatest asset is their employees.”
Poole also added that he feels the most important relationship in a municipality is between a Head of Council and a CAO, and he feels that he and Jacobson were able to accomplish a lot during their time together.”