Adam Prudhomme
Editor
A parade of Town of Greater Napanee staff rolled through the Strathcona Paper Centre parking lot on Thursday to bid farewell to CAO Ray Callery.
After 32 years with the municipality, Callery has taken a job with Leeds and Grenville county where he’ll again serve as CAO.
Thursday’s send-off was a surprise to Callery who had no idea what to expect when he arrived at the SPC. He was greeted by members of council followed by a steady flow of town staff who offered their well wishes in drive-through format in order to keep with COVID-19 protocols.
“We need to beat COVID because this is the stupidest way to say goodbye,” said Greater Napanee Mayor Marg Isbester.
She went on to present Callery with a plaque that contained a photo of Greater Napanee’s town hall-just so he wouldn’t forget where he got his start.
There’s little risk of that however as not only has he worked for the town for over three decades, but he will continue to call it home even with his new job. Isbester said the fact he worked where he lived was a great benefit to the town in that it made him all the more invested.
Greater Napanee council gathered in the SPC parking lot to say their good-byes to CAO Ray Callery (front left). Photo by Adam Prudhomme.
“It makes it so important to have an engaged person like you that works with us,” said Isbester. “Do we always agree? No. Would that be any fun? No. That’s how you get things moved forward.”
Callery says it’s going to be a bit odd not being CAO of Greater Napanee.
“It’s going to be different going into Metro and just being a citizen I can tell you that, it’ll be a little different feeling,” said Callery. “I have the greatest respect honestly for elected officials…it’s so instrumental to the community to have people willing to put their name on the ballot. It’s been a pleasure.”
Though it wasn’t the good-bye ceremony council would have wanted to hold for such a long-standing employee, it some ways holding it outside the SPC was fitting. One of Callery’s major accomplishments during his time with the town was overseeing its construction.
“This facility is amazing and it’s a great opportunity for the community,” said Callery, looking towards the SPC. “It took a lot of planning but there’s so many projects on the horizon. It’s going to be hard to watch. It’s going to be hard not to participate in some of them, but it’s going to be really nice to watch and I’m anxious to see how the community grows. We have a great staff and we have great new people. There were interviews this morning and there’s lots of new people who want to help. To all the staff, thank you for everything you’ve done to make it such a wonderful place to work.”
Callery said his time with town went by in a ‘blink’ and encourages the remaining staff to enjoy their time there because it goes by quickly.
He begins his new job on July 5.
“The new position is a challenge,” he said. “It’s an opportunity. It’s going to be a change and it’s quite frankly not real. Maybe when I start doing the drive every day after two minutes to work.”