He said Clarke, a former high school principal, had a very different concept of how things ought to run.<\/p>\n
“He included all of council when he met with the executive staff\u2026which today wouldn\u2019t 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\u2019t as regulated,” recalled Schumacher.<\/p>\n
He said Clarke\u2019s leadership style as Mayor was very similar to that of Aitchison\u2019s as both allowed and encouraged open and civil debate. “Nobody went home really upset with anybody else,” he said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
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\u2019t be getting taxed out here because we may go into town and use facilities. I won that battle, so that was gratifying.”<\/p>\n
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\u2019s thankful he did not have to spend his young life in the Russian sector.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“What happened is out of the American refugee camp, they shipped us to France when mom found out where dad was. He\u2019d 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\u2019s reparation debt to France that was part of the Geneva Convention,” he said.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m looking out the window and it was just like it is now. That particular November everything was white,” he recalled.<\/p>\n
He said he\u2019s never regretted his parents\u2019 decision to come to Canada. “I\u2019m so thankful because I had awesome opportunities.” Schumacher said he\u2019s 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\u2019s council meeting.<\/p>\n
Schumacher said his family worked for the Hart family and he got to spend a lot of time at the Hart House.<\/p>\n
He also said he\u2019s 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 \u2018come on young lad. I got somewhere to take you,\u2019 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.”<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Bay. For a young lad not doing anything in France other than surviving, to be exposed to all this neat stuff, was just overwhelming.”<\/p>\n
He credits Laverne Reynolds, or \u2018Liver\u2019 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\u2026 he\u2019d clip along pretty good, too,” he laughed.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t 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\u2019ll be married 50 years.<\/p>\n
“I lucked out, I found a strong, independent and intelligent woman and I managed to adapt myself to her,” he laughed. At council, Schumacher\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2018\/11\/Det_Married.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
He and Jan were married in 1970. Schumacher recalled that Ms. Hart was still alive when they were married. “Since Jan wasn\u2019t at home, she was up here, she wasn\u2019t at her parents\u2019 house and my parents didn\u2019t really have a really big house \u2013 there wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2018\/11\/JaniceatHartHouse.jpg\")
Det Schumacher’s wife Janice, pictured coming down the stairs of the Hart House, accompanied by her father on her wedding day.<\/p><\/div>\n
The couple was married at Trinity United Church and eventually raised three children. One of them, Dione Schumacher, is following in her father\u2019s footsteps and will form part of the incoming council.<\/p>\n
“I didn\u2019t 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\u2019s 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\u2019s great. We\u2019d love to have somebody on staff that\u2019s on council and we\u2019ll work with you. So good for her,” he said.<\/p>\n
His number one advice to his daughter has been to remember to work with staff. “Don\u2019t go and try to direct staff because that\u2019s the biggest mistake a new councillor makes. They think, oh I\u2019m the boss and they\u2019re going to go in and tell staff when something comes up, well you should do this, or you should do that, and that\u2019s disruptive and chaotic because you can\u2019t expect staff to have nine bosses \u2013 there\u2019s a mayor and eight councillors. You have to include the mayor or Town manager,” he said.<\/p>\n
What he\u2019ll miss most are his interactions with staff and his constituents, he said. As for retirement, Schumacher said he won\u2019t be bored. He\u2019ll spend time with his grandchildren, go ice fishing, play golf, read, and eventually travel with his wife once she retires from teaching.<\/p>\n
Schumacher choked back tears as staff and councillors gave him a standing ovation at Monday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n