Hazel Lloyst. (Photo: Facebook)
The general manager of the Belleville Downtown Improvement Area is taking leave from her job saying job stress
has affected both her mental, emotional, and physical health.
Hazel Lloyst announced her intentions in a Facebook post early Friday morning.
In the post she said she has been kept in the dark about her future with the organization ever since Mayor Panciuk
announced the board should be looking for a full-time, qualified executive director at the recent annual meeting.
Lloyst has been the general manager of the BDIA for 18 months. The job has seen several people come and go
in the past few years.
In the past, Lloyst has been a fundraising campaign manager for Loyalist College and a director of development at Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital Foundation.
Below is her Facebook post.
I’m done physically, emotionally and mentally as the General Manager for the Belleville Downtown Business Improvement Area (BDIA). I haven’t quit; I’m just done. I have been in personal crisis too many times in the last 10 weeks, enough is enough! As much as I have loved the position and moving things forward for our members and have wanted to be there and help to be the the change agent for downtown Belleville, these past 18 months have been a real challenge. The new Board Chair and Mayor Mitch Panciuk, whom I have sparred with on several occasions, have now made it very clear since the BDIA AGM where the then, Mayor Elect Mitch Panciuk publicly stated that he wanted the Board to hire a qualified Executive Officer to fulfill the day to day operations (my job except that I am the General Manager doing the same duties) implied that I am no longer needed. I have stayed the course since Nov. 27 but can no longer do so. My health is too important to me and I am now going to follow doctor’s orders to step away, for my own good. No one has yet defined to me what all these new directives mean, despite my asking for the past month. I would have hoped that with a $35 million redevelopment completed, they would want to carry the momentum forward with the staff in place to augment and support the new board of directors. I absolutely feel mentally, emotionally and physically sick about all this; what an absolute shame. I will continue to live, work and play in downtown Belleville, because that’s what I do.
