Rich Stivrins admits there are some parallels between commanding a ship on Lake Nipissing and guiding a police board.
"There are a lot of moving parts in both for sure," admitted Stivrins after his first board meeting as chair back in December.
Stivrins, who is the captain of the Chief Commanda II cruise ship, was appointed in January of 2022 as a board member and in December was voted as the new Police Board Chair replacing Dennis O'Connor.
"With Dennis not on the board anymore they needed someone to step in as chair and I was the guy," said Strivrins.
"I have a young son at home and a couple of businesses on the go. I think people need to step up and do things to affect change and this will be my attempt to do that," said Stivrins.
O'Connor, the long-time chair, was replaced as City Council police board appointee by Bill Hagborg.
"I don't know the process but we certainly miss him," said Stivrins about the departure of O'Connor.
"We are a pretty newly constituted board so I don't want to jump too far ahead. We face challenges just like a lot of other police boards in the province and we are working our best to solve them."
The new board includes Stivrins, Patricia Cliche, Mayor Peter Chirico, Deputy Mayor Maggie Horsfield, and Hagborg.
"We have a great board here so I am really confident with who sits around the table, three new with two who have served on the board before, there is a lot of experience and a lot of institutional knowledge in the room and I am definitely going to rely on them."
He hopes to get the board together to work on some strategic directions and work together to steer this board in the right direction.
