Deroo will not run in November municipal election

By Kevin Woodhouse
www.thesuburban.com

In the last Ste. Anne de Bellevue municipal election, Francis Deroo handily took the mayoral seat having no previous experience as councilor. But after he fulfills his current mandate, Deroo told The Suburban that he will not be seeking re-election in the upcoming fall campaign.

“I told my administration and council members that I would not be running again last week,” Deroo said. “It was a tough decision but I have loved serving the citizens of Ste. Annes for the last four years.”

Deroo wants to spend more time with his family and has recently been promoted at his work but is content with the work that has been accomplished, especially the finalization of the work on the city’s main street, a project long in the making with several phases and as many interruptions due to weather.

“The main street is done and there will be no more surprises there,” said Deroo. “It took a lot of work but we are working together well with the merchants’ association.”

Deroo is also proud of the city’s sustainable development plan and sees the upcoming transfer of the Veterans’ Hospital as an opportunity for the city to “work with the hospital before, during and after the transfer from federal to provincial jurisdiction.”

And despite the controversy that has been stirred up of the more than two year closing of Exit 41 and the release of recent engineering reports, the mayor stands behind the decision he and council unanimously made to close it after receiving a report from the city’s engineer at the time.

“We could have spent half a million dollars in 2009 to do some patchwork on the viaducts that would have left the problem, and the bill, for the next council,” Deroo said. “We had the courage to take a decision to put our citizens’ safety first after getting the engineer’s report.

“Looking back, it is still the right decision because once the work is done, it will be there forever,” said Deroo.

Without being able to go into specifics yet, Deroo told The Suburban that an agreement Transport Quebec on the Exit 41 dossier will be forthcoming next week.

“The city is a good place as we have an excellent staff, our administration and public works employees, are all proud to go to work and go out of their way to do that little extra,” said Deroo.