Councillor Det Schumacher gets a standing ovation at his last council meeting

Huntsville Mayor Scott Aitchison described the final meeting of the current council as bittersweet as colleagues and staff bid farewell to the longest-serving municipal councillor Huntsville has ever known at their November 26, 2018 meeting.

Det Schumacher was first elected in the fall of 1985 under then-Mayor Terry Clarke. Those were different times, recalled Schumacher in conversation with Doppler.

He said Clarke, a former high school principal, had a very different concept of how things ought to run.

“He included all of council when he met with the executive staff…which today wouldn’t be conventional because then all of a sudden you have to book it as a council meeting and give each councillor extra money. Back then it was different, it wasn’t as regulated,” recalled Schumacher.

He said Clarke’s leadership style as Mayor was very similar to that of Aitchison’s as both allowed and encouraged open and civil debate. “Nobody went home really upset with anybody else,” he said.

During more than 25 years as council representative, he lost the vote twice. The first time was in the 1988 election, when terms lasted three, rather than the current four years, according to Schumacher. He recalled losing by just 40 votes to Lyle Storey, which meant sitting on the sidelines from 1989 to 1991. The second time he lost was when he ran for Mayor against Claude Doughty in the fall of 2006.

Off the cuff, Schumacher said one of the more irksome moments for him in municipal politics was under then-Mayor Hugh Mackenzie. It involved the park in downtown Huntsville. “We had developed a really awesome, I thought, concept for the park where River Mill Park is now. We had that all contracted out, ready to go, and then when Huey lost the election and Claude got in he bought that contract out for $150,000 and did his thing down there. That bothered me because we had spent time, had public meetings and had a really awesome concept of a park, which never came to fruition.”

As for victories, among them, recalled Schumacher, was when the District was considering charging rural residents a tax for urban water and sewer infrastructure. He said the concept made him see red, especially as a rural resident and representative. “People out here spend upwards of 10,000 to 20,000 dollars just to get a well and septic put in.” He said while those in favour of the tax argued that people in rural communities work and get services in the urban centres, Schumacher thought that should be incorporated in the cost of doing business. “We shouldn’t be getting taxed out here because we may go into town and use facilities. I won that battle, so that was gratifying.”

Schumacher was born in East Germany in 1944. At the time, his father was off at war while his mother and grandmother tried to get him and his older sister to a safer place. “They walked and walked and walked and I guess they crossed the Elbe River and got into the American sector.” Schumacher said he’s thankful he did not have to spend his young life in the Russian sector.

He said his grandmother eventually managed to make her way to Canada because she had a sister here who sponsored her, and then the two sponsored the rest of the family. By the end of the war, Schumacher and his sister and parents were living in southeastern France.

“What happened is out of the American refugee camp, they shipped us to France when mom found out where dad was. He’d been a prisoner of war in France and he had to stay and work for a farmer for five years without wages as part of Germany’s reparation debt to France that was part of the Geneva Convention,” he said.

“I laugh sometimes when I see bullying on TV, now. They should try being a little German boy in post-war France, going to an all-boys school,” he said. “Fortunately my grandmother and her sister were able to sponsor us to Canada.”

This November marks 65 years since the family arrived in Canada in 1953. Schumacher was nine. He said he had often been told about Siberia and thought that’s where his parents had taken him and his sister when they arrived in Huntsville on a November very much like the one Huntsville is experiencing now.

“I’m looking out the window and it was just like it is now. That particular November everything was white,” he recalled.

He said he’s never regretted his parents’ decision to come to Canada. “I’m so thankful because I had awesome opportunities.” Schumacher said he’s been fortunate to have been able to call a community like Huntsville home. He is in awe at the number of volunteers who step forward to make their community a better place, a place with heart, as he put it at Monday’s council meeting.

Schumacher said his family worked for the Hart family and he got to spend a lot of time at the Hart House.

He also said he’s met a lot of interesting characters in Huntsville through the years. He credits former Mayor Sid Avery for awakening his political curiosity. “I was visiting my grandmother at his house because she was a house keeper there and he said ‘come on young lad. I got somewhere to take you,’ and he took me to Town Hall. He showed me the council chambers and on the wall were all the pictures of the past mayors up to his term,” recalled Schumacher. “And there was Dr. Hart, by that time I knew of the Hart House, and so at a very young age I was impressed with all this history of Huntsville.”

His parents got him involved in Scouts where he remembered meeting Wally Johns, another person who influenced him along the way. “He took us to Pitman’s Bay. For a young lad not doing anything in France other than surviving, to be exposed to all this neat stuff, was just overwhelming.”

He credits Laverne Reynolds, or ‘Liver’ as many affectionately called him, for introducing him to the sport of lacrosse. “He was just a great guy to be around,” recalled Schumacher. “He only has one hand and he used to hold the steering wheel with his stub… he’d clip along pretty good, too,” he laughed.

Schumacher eventually got a job at A&P. He began working for the grocery chain when he was in high school. He tried university for a year, but determined that he just wasn’t the type to stick his nose in books, and eventually started working for the grocery chain on a full-time basis. They moved him to Windsor, where he would meet his wife, Janice. In 2020 they’ll be married 50 years.

“I lucked out, I found a strong, independent and intelligent woman and I managed to adapt myself to her,” he laughed. At council, Schumacher’s admiration for his wife was evident. He told those present that she had managed to get her university degree through correspondence, “while raising three kids and a husband,” he joked.

He credits his wife for getting him involved in public service in the first place. He said she nudged him into running for school trustee and eventually he was elected chairman of the Muskoka School Board, as it was called back then. He is credited for pushing to get the existing V.K Greer School built in Port Sydney, with the help at the time from provincial representative for this riding, Frank Miller. Shortly after his tenure with the school board, Schumacher decided to run for council.

He and Jan were married in 1970. Schumacher recalled that Ms. Hart was still alive when they were married. “Since Jan wasn’t at home, she was up here, she wasn’t at her parents’ house and my parents didn’t really have a really big house – there wasn’t an extra room, Ms. Hart offered Jan the room in the tower of the Hart House to get herself ready for the wedding,” he recalled.

Det Schumacher’s wife Janice, pictured coming down the stairs of the Hart House, accompanied by her father on her wedding day.

The couple was married at Trinity United Church and eventually raised three children. One of them, Dione Schumacher, is following in her father’s footsteps and will form part of the incoming council.

“I didn’t realize it, but apparently she watched dad over the years and listened to me on the phone and I guess developed an interest for it. She’s a supervisor with Community Living in Huntsville,” said Schumacher. He said she recently transferred from Bracebridge to Huntsville and mentioned that she was running. “And they said, oh that’s great. We’d love to have somebody on staff that’s on council and we’ll work with you. So good for her,” he said.

His number one advice to his daughter has been to remember to work with staff. “Don’t go and try to direct staff because that’s the biggest mistake a new councillor makes. They think, oh I’m the boss and they’re going to go in and tell staff when something comes up, well you should do this, or you should do that, and that’s disruptive and chaotic because you can’t expect staff to have nine bosses – there’s a mayor and eight councillors. You have to include the mayor or Town manager,” he said.

What he’ll miss most are his interactions with staff and his constituents, he said. As for retirement, Schumacher said he won’t be bored. He’ll spend time with his grandchildren, go ice fishing, play golf, read, and eventually travel with his wife once she retires from teaching.

Schumacher choked back tears as staff and councillors gave him a standing ovation at Monday’s council meeting. Mayor Aitchison put a lot of work into a slide show in his honour, presented him with the Town flag, a framed photo of the past council with an inscription, as well as a photo of Town Hall. He presented Jan with flowers for her support through the years and said Schumacher would be truly missed around the council table.

Huntsville CAO Denise Corry also presented him with a gift – his very own pens as he’s known for losing his own and having to borrow them from staff. She thanked him for all his support and wished him well in his retirement.

“On behalf of staff, we can’t thank you enough for all your support over the years. It’s like losing a part of our family because you’ve been here a very long time… you’ve been extremely supportive and always there to stand behind us, so we wish you all the best in your retirement and you may be gone, but you will never be forgotten,” said an emotional Corry.

Schumacher also took out a jacket he received for his work with the Huntsville/Lake of Bays fire association. He said it had two generous gift certificates in the pockets and he thanked the fire department, the association, and Fire Chief Steve Hernen for the gesture. Schumacher modelled his jacket at the meeting and sat in the Mayor’s chair and called the meeting to a close.

“They just blew me away last night,” said Schumacher the following day.

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