In a ceremony, Georg Els was officially appointed former mayor of Forstern. Was in office for 24 years.
Forstern - According to the local council's resolution, Georg Els has been the former mayor for almost four years. Now he has it in black and white: On Thursday evening, Els, who was at the head of the community for 24 years, was awarded the honorary title.
He and his wife Maria were chauffeured to the school by the fire brigade, where the Tading firecrackers gave him a “big reception”. The ceremony took place in the auditorium, where Els, who will be 66 in a week, was presented with the certificate of honor.
“Today we are honoring an extraordinary person,” said Mayor Rainer Streu. For him, it was a special honor to be able to recognize his predecessor for his “tireless commitment to the community.” Els drove their development forward, “always with people at the center”.
A political focus since he took office in 1996 has been the creation of optimal childcare places - from the first kindergarten to the new house in Karlsdorf, from the expansion of the elementary school to the new construction of the gymnasium. Els worked passionately to promote the clubs, promoted the transformation of the former Eicher industrial wasteland into a lively residential area and, with the development areas, made it possible for many locals to dream of owning their own house.
“It also requires courage to make decisions that are not always popular, but serve the interests of the general public,” said Streu, mentioning joining the Forst-Nord water supply or building a new fire station, the size and design of which was certainly criticized .
The title of former mayor is not given lightly. It represents “decades of commitment and dedication to the well-being of our community and its residents. We honor a person who not only managed Forstern, but also guided its fortunes with vision and determination,” praised Streu.
Of course, he did not do this alone, but with the support of the local council. Streu counted: there were 32 councilors over the four terms of office. Individual characters, different opinions, different interests - “but with a lot of sensitivity you always managed to create the necessary unity and ensured that you could still look each other in the eye even after heated meetings.” Many current and former councilors came to the celebration, as did other political companions such as Rainer Mehringer, Els' FW parliamentary group colleague in the district council, and district administrator Martin Bayerstorfer.
He called Els a “mentally young, fit, excellent former mayor.” This title is an “incredibly great and beautiful award”. Given the multitude of reasons that Streu gave for this, this honor “became extremely necessary”. Els pursued modern, forward-looking politics. At the head of the local council, he did an exemplary job of ensuring that “people feel comfortable here, in their homeland”.
Els himself said with his own humor: “What do you say after so much praise and recognition? A little humbly I say: Dear God, forgive them for exaggerating so much. Dear God, forgive me for liking it so much." Then he became serious: "I'm happy, it honors me, it makes me proud and it touches me too." Because when he moved from Neufahrn to Forstern in 1983, It was not possible to think “that I would ever become mayor and now receive this title”. Els admitted that it was “perhaps just an emergency solution”: He still remembers that Sunday in the fall of 1995 when his father-in-law, then mayor Josef Eicher, told him: “I think you’re going to run for mayor now “have to” – the actual candidate dropped out. “But spontaneous emergency solutions sometimes last longer, and that was the beginning of 24 years as mayor and now more than 20 years of work in the district council,” says Els.
He experienced a variety of encounters, with ups and downs of emotions. Taking responsibility for people for so long can only be achieved together. God gave him companions, friends and also opponents who helped him. Thank you all: local councilors and fellow mayors, authorities and employees “who put up with me and calmed me down many a time with gummy bears”, club and church representatives.
However, all of these pillars would collapse without a foundation. The foundation is the family, starting with the parents and parents-in-law, through his brother Klaus, sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law, son Georg, his wife Annelieke and the grandchild, all the way to “my Maria,” as Els called his wife: a partner, “ who endures a lot, supports and accepts everything, and comforts you every now and then.” “I enjoyed being mayor of Forstern. It was an honor and a pleasure,” said Els looking back, before many anecdotes were told and memories refreshed during the cozy part in the gym.