THUNDER BAY – Marilyn Cully spent 25 years working as a mental health nurse in Thunder Bay.
She’s seen first-hand the problems facing the city, and it’s a big part of the reason she decided to file to run in this year’s at-large race.
Cully, one of 24 candidates on the ballot, is also a retired realtor, which has brought her to all corners of the city and given her a keen sense of the issues facing all seven wards.
It’s a unique perspective, she said.
“I figure that will help with all the city planning and the infrastructure and the mental health issues, too,” Cully said.
A volunteer in minor football and a former Sunday school teacher, the first-time candidate is a grandmother of 16 looking out for the future of her community.
Not surprisingly, she lists mental health as the No. 1 issue facing Thunder Bay, something that not only needs attention over the next four years and beyond, but meaningful action.
“Because I was a mental health nurse, I believe I can help there. We need more facilities for rehab nurses. We need to separate the seniors [with mental health issues] in a different building than the senior buildings,” Cully said.
Turning to infrastructure, Cully is hyper focused on the condition of Thunder Bay’s roads.
“We have to get one bid and work with the people that are working on the roads, maybe get better quality materials than they’re using. Our roads get torn up in the winter. They’re very bad, so we’ve got to do something about that.”
Cully thinks the city could fill its indoor turf needs given the funds it already has in the bank. Rather than building a state-of-the-art facility with all the bells and whistles, she said something a little less flashy and a lot more practical is probably a better plan.
“I hear that we’ve already got $17 million in funds and they’ve already approved [spending] it. So if that’s true… what I was thinking was if we’re going to do it, then do it in phases and try and get some private funding to help with the second phase and third phase,” Cully said.
“Get the building up, just the building, so the kids and the children out there can play soccer and other things and then get the second phase with all the restaurants and all that stuff worked in, because we really just can’t afford it right now.”
A Westfort resident, Cully said she’s already seen the impact crime has had on her neighbourhood.
She routinely goes for walks nearby and is constantly picking up used needles for disposals.
It all goes hand in hand, she said, and police need help.
“We need to get policemen in little offices in the worst crime areas in town, like a couple of them, for 24-hour service, so they can actually patrol the streets like they did in the past, you know, the olden days when they walked the beat,” Cully said.
“We need that again. We need it on Simpson Street. We need it on Cumberland and we need it in Westfort.”
