Andy Scribilo wants people to vote for him because of his leadership.
Scribilo, president of the Kenora and District Chamber of Commerce, said as a resident, he noticed a real deterioration and has talked to lots of people about safety issues in town, which resulted in people not coming to shop.
“So I decided it was time to get involved with city council like I've dealt with them lots in the past and now was the time to sit down and make a stand for it,” he said.
Scribilo said he’s been involved his whole life in Kenora and has the enthusiasm.
“If I believe in something, I’m whole-heartedly 110 percent behind it. This is my community, I don’t want to see if fail. I want to see it prosper for the people here because it’s an awesome place to live.”
He said that he also has the time and energy.
“I'm retired and [with] the prompting from the people, my family, my kids are supporting me wholeheartedly. So now is the time,” he said.
“Kenora’s on a tipping point. I’ve seen that from a business perspective and just what's happening in our community right now, it's time to turn things around so we’re a vibrant community again.”
Scribilo said the biggest issue facing Kenora is downtown safety, which is spreading to the wider community.
“Nobody’s going shopping downtown, lot of shops are closing,” he said.
He pointed to what he described as high drug use situation with improperly discarded syringes laying in the streets. He also referenced a recent OPP survey that said 80 percent of respondents didn’t feel safe going downtown to shop.
Scribilo said he doesn’t support a safe injection service in town.
“But I’m fully in favour of a rehabilitation centre, for drugs, alcohol, and mental illness.”
He said it should also include programming for learning social skills:
“How to help yourself, how to get comfortable in a place to live and go to work.”
Scribilo said he would support a loitering bylaw to reduce how people congregate downtown.
“The people are not who they are when it's alcohol and drugs [involved]. They're totally different people and we got to get to the crux of the situation.”
He added that they need to get to the bottom of why people are flocking into Kenora because the city just can't meet the demands for housing.
Scribilo said he recently spoke to a Grade 10 civics class about the upcoming election and he said one topic the teens brought up was safety, which was a big contrast to when he was younger.
“I can remember not ever thinking about that. You know our friends went out never once did we not consider being safe,” he said.
“I don't have all the answers. But the magic wand is listening to people and trying things to avert the really bad situations and we're at the bottom down so there's only one way out.”
