Huntsville Mayor Karin Terziano says goodbye to politics

Photo: Outgoing Huntsville Mayor Karin Terziano is pictured above at a Huntsville Council meeting held in Port Sydney when she was Deputy Mayor in 2017.

Mayor Karin Terziano reflects on her 12 years of service to the Town of Huntsville.  Terziano served on municipal council for three terms. She was Deputy Mayor when former Mayor Scott Aitchison resigned from the role in 2019 in order to serve as Member of Parliament for Parry Sound—Muskoka. 

The decision to accept the appointment was no slam dunk. She recalled, “I thought long and hard about it. And I waffled a few times. I knew that it would be controversial to accept the appointment versus having an election.”  In the end, she decided that it was in the best interest of the Town⁠—especially the financial interest⁠—that she accept the appointment and forgo another election.

The first thing that surprised the veteran councillor was how different being mayor was from sitting on council.  She says, “You are much more engaged with the staff and certainly so with the CAO.” She adds, “I don’t know if this is true of all mayors but it really became a daily job for me. If you let it⁠—and I did⁠—you’re on call pretty much all the time.”   

Terziano is not one to blow her own horn but she acknowledges that her first big challenge as mayor⁠—and one of the things she is most proud of⁠—was seeing Fairvern expand to 160 beds and finding a new location for the facility. Then, after the volunteer board acknowledged that the project was just too much for it to handle, she worked hard to convince District councillors to take over the management. There isn’t the same perceived benefit to other areas of the District in there being an LTC facility in Huntsville, and since District is only obliged to have one LTC under its care, having the District take over Fairvern was far from a foregone conclusion. In the end, there were unanimous ‘yays’ around the District table when the vote was taken; Terziano smiles at the memory. 

Later, there would be another challenge and opportunity in the acquisition of the former KWH Pipe property. Terziano says, “I’m so glad that we did this when the opportunity presented itself. There is a long-term renewable lease in place and we made as stringent a plan as possible to put all funds into an environmental reserve in the event that the former Tannery property ever needs some remediation.” She adds, “It’s in-town waterfront from past Avery Beach all the way to Centre Street and now the Town has control of it. We hope that the current lessee and the jobs the company brings to town stay a long, long time, and that is helped by the fact that it has a good landowner in the Town of Huntsville.”

The outgoing mayor was born and raised in Huntsville and as she puts it, “I went away long enough to know that this is where I wanted to return and spend my life.” Terziano calls herself a homebody and she feels very lucky to live here. She uses the word ‘retired’ tentatively. It’s not something she’s really comfortable with yet. At the same time, she always knew that at the end of 12 years⁠—and whether she’d been mayor or not⁠—she’d be done with public life. 

Asked what she’ll miss about being Mayor she laughs and says, “Mainly I’ll miss knowing what to do with myself all day! Right now, I get up, have a coffee and then start answering e-mails. I’ve worked since I was 13 years old so it’s hard to get my head around the idea of being retired. She muses, “Joking aside, I’ll miss the people I work with and the friendships I’ve made over having the same interests.” She pauses, “It becomes a big part of your life.” 

While Terziano has no big regrets about her time in office she does wonder how certain things might have unfolded had there not been COVID. But then she says, “We’ll never know. Maybe nothing would have changed at all!” 

She adds some more good news: “The Town has lower debt and larger reserves than it has ever had; we haven’t debentured anything since 2010.”

While the pandemic was a challenge, she’s proud of how the Town managed. She says with confidence, “We closed when we needed to and we re-opened the minute we could. We did a great job in terms of health care including making space for COVID vaccination clinics and COVID testing. The hospital was going to have test centres in Bracebridge and when we heard that the Town stepped up.” She adds, “And we managed to be open more than other nearby municipalities.” 

Once again, Terziano’s subtle humour breaks through when she smiles and says, “Yes, we had a pandemic but for three years we didn’t have a spring flood! So that was one thing I never had to face as mayor!” 

It’s no secret that Terziano loves her hometown. She loves its walkability, the Summit Centre, the proximity to magnificent parks, and the fact that every fall we have one of the loveliest colour spectacles on earth. 

She believes that the downtown is healthy and thriving even having been under construction for four years. She explains, “We didn’t know for sure that the timing was right but thankfully, we now know that it was the right decision to do the work when we did. And we did our above-ground share of three million dollars worth of work with no debt. And the below-ground work done by the District will be good for 50 years. It just seemed to make sense that if everything was going to be dug up that we do other work at the same time.” 

Terziano adds, “Huntsville has certainly changed since I was a child but I think it still has that small-town feel.”   She concludes, “Growth comes with a price but it also comes with amenities. It’s about maintaining a balance.”  

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