Farewell to Village of Lancaster Mayor Cansdale

LANCASTER- It was quite unexpected and rather shocking when I heard Village of Lancaster Mayor William G. Cansdale Jr., was resigning from his position as mayor. Sitting in the board room, I thought my hearing was going for a minute. I even thought, “Is there another William G. Cansdale Jr., I don’t know about?”

I was however glad to learn that Cansdale will still be serving the village and its residents as the superintendent of public works. I think losing him completely would be a great loss for the village. I must admit it will be weird not having him conduct meetings or calling him for answers to my many annoying questions, but I do wish him much luck on his new journey in life.

I meet countless people in my line of work and Mayor Cansdale is one person that over my years as a reporter/editor, I have gained a lot of respect for. While it is always my job to write about the good or the bad, I always felt Cansdale had a great respect for what I do, because as many reporters know we are not well liked by many people.

And while Cansdale may not remember, I wanted to share with the residents the first time I actually met Cansdale and how nervous I was that I had to talk to a mayor. I was actually working at The Bee Group Newspapers at the time and one of the reporters needed someone to cover a Village of Lancaster meeting. Keep in mind I was fresh out of college, and while I completed an internship, reporting was still new to me.

Anyways, I went to the meeting and I was completely lost. I absolutely had no clue. I left and as soon as I got home, I thought to myself, “I am in so much trouble.” The next day I was asked if anything happened and I said no. The reporter looked at me like I was insane, but I just didn’t know how to say, “I have no clue,” but in a professional way. There just wasn’t that option.

This was the time period when the village was experiencing problems with rats and garbage cans. After listening to my recorder for the fifth time, it turned out they did speak about it during the meeting, but I didn’t really have clear sound coming from the recorder. It was now my job to call Cansdale and somehow get him to speak on the matter again without him knowing I messed up.

Well, needless to say I did my job and got the story, but it was my first experience as a reporter and Cansdale really helped me out and he probably didn’t even realize it. It could have gone really wrong and for a first experience it could have been a time in my life that I would never want to remember again, but it definitely wasn’t.

Fast forwarding a couple of months ahead, I began as a reporter for The Lancaster Source. I was welcomed by the board and Cansdale, and since then I have always enjoy attending village meetings. I know, weird.

I have learned so much about government and I have learned I actually like government. Never thought I would say that in a million years, because like most people I believed all politicians were scumbags, but my opinion obviously changed. I witnessed some powerful changes under Cansdale’s term and how difficult it is to make a decision when one side is for something and one side is against it. No matter what you’re always the bad guy to someone.

I just wanted to say thank you to Cansdale for taking the time to explain things to me because I couldn’t have done my job if I didn’t have someone willingly to talk to me.

Also, congratulations to the new mayor, Paul Maute. Hope you do great things.