Former Haldimand Township Reeve Bill Finley Remembered for 30 Years of Municipal Service
By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Bill Finley – a man with 30 years of municipal service to his township among his accomplishments – passed away on Remembrance Day at the age of 87.
Finley was the son of World War I veteran Gordon Finley and his wife Dorothy, growing up in Wicklow and living there for all but the last few weeks of his life. He grew up with four brothers and three sisters. Speaking over the weekend, his sister Joan Chalovich shared some of her memories of Finley, like those hectic years when they had to catch the bus from their farm to Cobourg to attend what was then Cobourg Collegiate Institute (and later became CDCI West).
“My brother Bill always helped Dad with the chores,” Chalovich recalled.
“He would get up early and go out to the barn and work, and then have to get cleaned up. We would have his lunch ready, and I would help him get out to catch the bus in time.”
She recalled her brother’s hopes to join the Ontario Provincial Police – which his son Kevin would later do – but the opening of the Borg-Warner plant in Cobourg (later GE Plastics) caught his interest.
“He had a skill kind of unique for a man. He could establish colour codes really finely. I think it’s what he did most of his time with Borg-Warner, as they were then – he was in charge of the palettes to get the right colours,” she said.
He had married Jacqueline Kernaghan, and they were raising a family of five children, when Finley tried something else – municipal politics. And Chalovich, who would later serve two terms herself as Mayor of Cobourg, gives her father some of the credit.
“When we were growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money for frills. But my dad always insisted on having a daily newspaper. We always were encouraged to read the newspaper and take an interest in the broader community.”
It was 1977 when Finley joined the council of what was then Haldimand Township, serving under long-time Reeve Ed Roddy.
“He was getting older, it was time for a change – every once in a while, council gets kind of stale,” recalled Chalovich, who lived in Grafton at the time.
“There was pressure from the community that they needed some younger blood. He decided to run – he always was very interested in the news and what was going on, locally and in Canada. He never lost that kind of enquiring mind, wanting to know what was going on.”
In the next election, Finley did just that, successfully challenging the incumbent for the Reeve’s seat.
“I know he felt kind of bad because he knew the family so well, but he felt it was time Ed retired. The people agreed,” she said.
Chalovich had accompanied him on much of this campaign.
“He was really, really quite anxious to take his turn. He would go out on a Saturday and I would go with him over the roads through the township. He would knock on the doors, and I would wait in the car to roll on to the next farm.”
The subsequent three decades saw Haldimand Township (later Alnwick-Haldimand Township) gain a reeve (later mayor) with real dedication, she said.
“He really tried to find ways for people to have their concerns dealt with quickly. If there was a discussion around a severance or a complaint about what was going on, he would go out and investigate himself,” she stated.
Some innovations under his watch still enrich the lives of the community, such as his stewardship in establishing the Wicklow Boat Launch. He also led the efforts to establish a township fire department when the cost of contracting for this service from the Town of Cobourg was growing more than he liked.
And at a time when his sister was on Cobourg’s Public Utilities Commission, he worked with that body to establish Grafton’s own communal water system.
As Mayor of Cobourg in the 1990s, Chalovich would have occasion to serve on Northumberland County council with her brother – back before the big municipal restructuring that took place at the turn of the century. It was a body with 27 members (as opposed to its current complement of seven) and, though this helped every councillor to learn so much more about the rest of the county, it could be unwieldy when it came to debate and getting things done.
“There were times when I, as an urban representative, had a different opinion of something than he would have as a rural representative. We would banter back and forth a bit on things,” she recalled.
“Mother always had a rule when we were all back to the farmhouse for a meal together – we were not to talk politics.”
Finley served a term as Warden of county council before he stepped out of politics in 2010. But his interest in his community remained. He could often be seen walking along the lakeside or attending services at St. Andrew’s United Church.
“He was a real people person,” Chalovich said.
“We both give credit to our family, because we were fortunate to have a good upbringing. Our parents were strict, but they also were very kind and principled.”
Finley is predeceased by brothers Edgar and Robert, and sisters Marion and Edith.
He is survived by brothers Thomas and Michael, as well as sister Joan Chalovich.
He is also survived by his children – Carol Robson (Steve), Catherine Wood (Steve), Connie Finley, Colleen Cathcart (Allan) and Kevin Finley (Donna) – and grandchildren Allison, Jeffrey, Gillian (Curtis), Abbey (Carson) and Ali, as well as his companion Anne Dickens of Colborne.
Visitation will be held at MacCoubrey’s Funeral Home in Cobourg Wednesday, Nov 18, from 2 to 4 p.m.
And 7 to 9 p.m., and on Thursday, Nov. 19, at 11 a.m. prior to the service at noon. Interment will take place in Grafton’s Fairview Cemetery, and the family would appreciate donations to St. Andrew’s United Church or Northumberland Hills Hospital’s Restorative Care Unit.
