When people hear Bruce Fidler is calling it a career, they may wonder how the Town of Creighton will manage without its long-time mayor.
Fear not, however, because Fidler, 59, is retiring from his other job – maintenance supervisor with the Flin Flon School Division.
“It was a very tough decision, but I just personally felt it was time,” says Fidler, who caps off a nearly 27-year career with the school division next week. “I want more time to spend on the golf course, more time out on the lake and actually dedicate more time to Town of Creighton business.”
Which isn’t to say Fidler won’t miss his day job or, more specifically, the people he works with.
“I enjoy the everyday contact with different people, meeting different people all the time, working with different people,” he says. “Throughout the number of years, I’ve worked for some excellent supervisors, excellent admin staff, and I’ve worked alongside some excellent people and I’ve had a lot of good people working for me as well.”
Fidler began with the division on October 31, 1988. The Halloween start date was fitting because although he was dressed as a custodian, he was really a journeyman electrician.
It didn’t take long – one or two months – for Fidler to transfer to the maintenance department, where he could ply his trade as an electrician on division facilities and projects.
Promoted
In March 2007, he was promoted to maintenance supervisor, one of the top jobs in the division, overseeing the upkeep of all division buildings.
Before joining the division, Fidler was an electrician for the Saskatchewan government, working on government facilities across the northern part of the province.
When the Creighton office he worked out of closed down, he declined a transfer to either North Battleford of Swift Current. He wanted to stay in Creighton.
“It was shortly after that that the opportunity to get on with the school division came up, so it was a perfect opportunity, I thought,” Fidler recalls.
“I always had faith that something would open up and I didn’t have to wait very long.”
Six years after hiring on with the division, Fidler ventured into the side career that has made him a household name throughout the area.
He joined Creighton town council as a councillor in 1994. In 2003, unchallenged, he became mayor and holds the job to this day.
Fidler admits juggling his divisional and mayoral duties has been difficult at times.
But he says the division has been very accommodating when he has asked to take time off (his own time, of course) to attend mayoral functions.
Fidler is now looking to his April 30 retirement date and has been busy training his successor, Brent Osika, who takes over May 1.
Whereas many retirees take side jobs to stay busy, Fidler appears to have his hands full as mayor.
“I expect to be quite busy with the town business, so that’s where I’m thinking most of my energy will be for the next little while anyways,” he says.
Looking back once more on his school division career, Fidler adds simply, “It’s been great – it really has.”
