New mayor has high hopes for Orillia

Mayor-elect Angelo Orsi set to chart new course for city
By NATHAN TAYLOR THE PACKET & TIMES November 12 2010
Looking out the window of his Harvie Settlement Road office, Angelo Orsi sees progress in action.
The old house on the hill, which is home to his companies, Charter Construction and Mariposa Homes, sits above the fastest-growing section of the city — West Ridge. Some call it Orsi-ville.

He sees the restful residences and bustling businesses that have been built on property his family invested in during the late 1980s. When he looks down the hill, he feels a sense of pride and ownership.
Next month, he’ll be able to look out any window in town and feel the same.
The 44-year-old mayor-elect has come a long way from his days as a corn picker on a Bradford farm. He is now the owner of the two companies mentioned, as well as Steel Tree Structures. He is also part-owner of Ora Kitchens and has other landholding companies.
Orsi lived in Thornhill and Richmond Hill before his family moved to Bradford when he was about five. He lived on a farm there into his teens.
He got to know construction sites at an early age, as his dad was also a builder, but something called him to the cornfields.
“I remember wanting to work for this farmer. It was fun,” he recalled. “I didn’t eat corn for years after. I had an overdose of corn.”
After their time in Bradford, the family moved back to Richmond Hill, and that’s where Orsi finished high school.
He decided then that he would take a year off before post-secondary school to work with his dad, Lou, in 1985.
He never looked back.
“It’s been a long year. That’s what happens when you take time off from school sometimes — you end up getting yourself into a career.”
The family bought a place on Couchiching Point in 1988. Before long, his dad had property along Harvie Settlement Road and he purchased the land that’s now home to Hawk Ridge Golf and Country Club from the Hurl family.
The family business was taking root in Orillia at a time when the housing market was picking up. They quickly learned the harsh truth behind the saying, ‘What goes up must come down.’
The market crashed, and it wasn’t easy ride for the next four or five years.
“We’re lucky we didn’t lose our business. It was a tough time, as it was for everybody,” Orsi said.
But the local legacy of the Orsi family was not to be neglected.
“My dad is a visionary. He sees the big picture. He saw the opportunity in Orillia,” said Orsi, who lives in Severn Township, on the Severn-Orillia border. “I have a vision, too. I’m more of a stickler for detail. I like a more personal touch.”
That applies to his businesses and the way he plans to run city hall. When building a house, he wants to be sure it has “a presence, an appeal and has regard for Orillia.”
“I want to make sure I leave something that is not built just for me as a builder, but that I leave it for the (homeowner) and for people who visit the home as a guest.”
That view runs parallel to his vision for the city, and it’s one that appealed to many. The 100-plus people who volunteered for his campaign to become mayor represented all sectors of the Sunshine City, including arts, sports, business and politics.
Ultimately, though, it came down to one desire: change. It was an oft-uttered word during the campaign, but Orsi wasn’t too fond if it at first.
“I was nervous to use the word change, to be honest. For some people, change is threatening… but at the end of the day, when it was all over with, it was about change,” he said. “I got 48.2% of the vote. That’s pretty substantial. It wasn’t a mistake that people wanted change.”
Social networking also played a part in his success, he said. He used venues such as Facebook to connect with the “under-50” voters.
Regardless of age, there were common themes — one being jobs.
“There’s a lot of people who left Orillia. Our future has been exported out,” he said, stating his goal to “bring back the opportunities, bring back the future we lost and create some prosperity.”
When he officially takes the mayor’s seat, he will be eyeing staff — not the positions, but the reporting structure. Many businesses have a CEO and board of directors. So shall it be for city hall.
Orsi wants to have “key reporters” reporting to mayor and council. They would include the city manager, treasurer, clerk and economic development manager.
One situation he doesn’t want repeated is the additional $450,000 that was paid — without council’s approval — for remedial work after sewage-pumping station failure last August.
“We have to learn from the past.”
Orsi and his wife, Gina, have three children: Vanessa, 12, Louis, 9, Annalysse, 5.