Merrickville-Wolford CBO retires after 31 years

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The NG Times Newspaper

Merrickville-Wolford’s Chief Building Official will be retiring at the end of this week after a career with the Municipality that spanned three decades. Randy Wilkinson started working at the Municipality as their Chief Building Official in 1989. He sees that a lot has changed since then, especially the holy grail that is the Ontario Building Code, which has gone from a mere pocket manual to a document that has two large volumes. After over 30 years,

Randy is regarded as an expert in the Building Code and is always ready to help council, colleagues, residents, or anyone else who has questions. “You have to know it fairly well, or at least know where to look,” he says.

When Randy first started at the Municipality, he and his wife lived in Oxford-On-Rideau (now North Grenville), but moved to Merrickville-Wolford 26 years ago to continue raising their family. Randy is the proud father of five grown children and grandfather to eight grandchildren, with whom he is looking forward to spending more time in his retirement.
Randy has loved every minute of his career with the Village. He has enjoyed working with the various councils which, he says, have always been very supportive. He has also worked with many different staff members over the years, all of whom he considers dear friends and colleagues. “Merrickville-Wolford is a great place to work,” he says.

Although Randy has said he will still be helping out at the Municipality occasionally, he is very much looking forward to slowing down a bit. He will still be keeping busy helping his children, many of whom are in the construction business. He will also be helping his wife with her own residential and commercial painting business and keeping on top of maintaining his home. “I have an old house that needs a lot of work,” he says.

It is clear that Randy is very passionate about his work. Even though he is retiring, he says he is happy to help anyone in the community who has questions about the Building Code. “If anybody calls, or I bump into people, I am always ready to help out,” he says. “I see it as a privilege to answer their questions.”

Mayor Doug Struthers says it is hard to imagine the Municipality without Randy. “He will be missed greatly, not only for his knowledge and expertise, but for fitting in so well with the administration,” he says. “It’s hard to think of a building [in Merrickville-Wolford] that doesn’t have his fingerprint on it.”

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