Essex is looking for a new chief administrative officer.
Russ Phillips is leaving the post for a new opportunity out west and to be closer to family near Winnipeg. He formally announced his resignation to town staff on Monday.
He says it wasn't an easy decision to make.
"It's a great community. Great people. Love the access to Windsor and Detroit," says Phillips. "Southwestern Ontario has been good for us, but home calls."
Phillips points to an overhauled town website to better serve residents, a four year deal with CUPE Local 172 to allow for improved labour relations and an earlier budget cycle to help get better contract prices as some of his key accomplishments in his little over three year stay with the town.
It hasn't always been easy though.
"Yeah, it feels like three plus years," says Phillips. "I can't say there haven't challenges along the way, but worked hard and diligently on behalf of the community. I feel like that we've really accomplished a lot together."
The outgoing CAO sees asset management and expanding commercial-industrial development as the main challenges for the town in the near future.
The town has a lot going for it in his eyes.
"The diversity of the communities. The fact that you're 20 minutes away from anywhere it seems to be. Love the water. We were on Lake Erie for a while, up and down the Detroit River on to Lake St. Clair. Just wonderful vistas and areas and things like that," says Phillips.
His last day on the job in Essex is April 18.