Cathy Burghardt-Jesson, Mayor of Lucan Biddulph, was sworn in for her third term at Warden of Middlesex County.
At a meeting on Thursday, Burghardt-Jesson was chosen by her peers to lead Middlesex County for the next year.
She tells myFM she is honoured her peers have faith in her.
Allan Mayhew, Mayor of Southwest Middlesex, also accepted the nomination for Warden, but fell short to Burghardt-Jesson.
Burghardt-Jesson tells myFM one of the first orders of business is to catch the new council up and tackle Social Service Funding from the province.
During the meeting on the 8th, John Brennan, Deputy Mayor of Middlesex Centre, Susan Clarke, Mayor of Adelaide-Metcalfe, and Brian Ropp, Mayor of North Middlesex , were all nominated for Warden of Middlesex County but declined the nomination.
Burghardt-Jesson tells myFM that coming off of a Municipal Election there are new faces on Middlesex County Council and the first order of business is catching them up to speed. She says she would also like to have their input and hear what their priorities for the County are this year.
She says they have a great working relationship with all neighboring Municipalities and wants to keep that going. There is still a lot of work to be done but they have improved their lines of communication with one another.
Burghardt-Jesson says her biggest priority for the county is working with the City of London and the Provincial Government on Social Service Funding.
Stemming off of that thought, Burghardt-Jesson says the biggest challenge this year is the fear of the unknown. She says you never really know what is going to happen in the world and Provincially.
Burghardt-Jesson says the economy has changed drastically over the last 18 months. Inflation is high and so is interest rates. She says another challenge will be navigating those things and how to keep businesses going.
When it comes down to it, Burghardt-Jesson is excited for the year ahead. She says it’s “not all doom and gloom”. Middlesex County is still recovering from the pandemic. She says it was a challenging time to lead then and will be just as hard, if not harder, this term .
This will be Burghardt-Jesson’s third term as Warden of Middlesex County. She was Warden in 2020 and 2021. She passed the gavel to Alison Warwick, Mayor of Thames Centre from 2018-2022, last year. Warwick was happy to pass it back to Burghardt-Jesson.
John Brennan of Middlesex Centre and Susan Clarke of Adelaide-Metcalfe were both nominated for Deputy Warden as well but Declined.
Aina DeViet, Mayor of Middlesex Centre and Allan Mayhew of Southwest Middlesex both accepted the nomination for Deputy Warden. DeViet was Sworn in Thursday as Deputy Warden.