Outgoing Windsor BIA board chair says only re-elected member resigned
Outgoing Downtown Business Improvement Association (DWBIA) board chair Larry Horwitz held a press conference Dec. 11 announcing the only board member re-elected was resigning.
Mary Anne Ducharme was the only returning member of the board, which elected mostly new members last Friday. Horwitz announced Tuesday that Ducharme had given him her resignation.
"In her letter of resignation, she stated that the new board wishes to go in a new direction and she'll step down because she's not part of that," he said.
Horwitz said he has been a part of the DWBIA for 15 years. He will remain on the board until Jan. 24 when the new members will take over.
At that point, Horwitz said he'll at first keep busy cleaning his basement, as per his wife's request. But he said he'll still be working on his investments throughout the downtown core.
"I'm committed to a safe, clean, pedestrian-friendly, economically viable, residential-friendly city core," said Horwitz."I love downtown. I love Windsor and I'm committed to both."
After that, he refused to answer any questions and left the media to speak with Coun. Rino Bortolin, city appointee for the board.
New energy to the board
Borolin said this year's election had "the most people we've seen vote in a BIA election" in his memory. There are about 650 members of the DWBIA. Any business that opens within its parameters automatically becomes a member.
According to Bortolin, there is an upswing of young entrepreneurs who want to be active in the downtown and make change.
"Just look at a lot of the tension around the parking garage last year, the conversion of the parking garage," he said. "A lot of people were upset by that."
The new board has younger members on it and Bortolin said they will bring a new energy to the DWBIA.
"I mean we don't want to steer to far from what's going on," he said. "The board has made a lot of great decisions over the last four years that I've been a part of it, even the decisions where we disagree on the details or how."
