Former Merritt Mayor Neil Menard has died of cancer at the age of 80.

Speaking at this afternoon’s TNRD Board meeting, current Merritt Mayor Mike Goetz says Menard died on Tuesday.

“He invited me over to his house on Friday. He couldn’t speak any more but he wrote me letters and wanted to let you know he enjoyed being a part of all of this,” Goetz said. “He always as a jokester, at the very bottom he said I’m going to get out of this heat wave one way or the other, and he did happen to pass away.”

“He did our community really well. He loved the TNRD and everything that went with it.”

First elected as a councillor in a by-election in February 2014, Menard was elected mayor in November of that year. He was in that role until 2018, when he lost his re-election bid to Linda Brown.

“We relied on each other’s counsel as we moved forward and I had a lot of respect for Neil. He was just more than just a political accomplice, he was a friend”

Goetz says the City of Merritt plans to honour Menard at their next meeting on Tuesday, July 23.

“One of the reasons he called me over on Friday was he had a custom made gavel made for me, and he wanted to present it at a council meeting but he knew he was going to be too weak,” Goetz said. “I think Neil knew his time was coming very close, so I’ll be using that gavel Tuesday night and probably for the rest of my term.

“Not that there was anything wrong with the gavel that I have but this one was made specially.”