Douglas Shire’s recently-elected mayor Michael Kerr has been officially sworn in, but he may never know what it’s like to experience the process under normal circumstances.

Complying by the Covid-19 distancing regulations, he was sworn in on Easter Sunday by Council CEO Mark Stoermer amid a range of emotions.

“We had a procedural issue involving my chairing the Emergency Disaster Group and this accounted for it taking place on Sunday,” said Mayor Kerr.

But the current circumstances involving Covid-19, did not allow for the traditional fanfare, which will no doubt be duplicated when the four councillors are sworn in on Thursday.

“This should have been exciting; instead it was daunting as we are in unknown territory.

“These are very strange times and we do not know what is around the corner,” said Mayor Kerr, who is already hard at work on statutory proceedings.

In the run for the mayoral position, Kerr garnered 3365 (54.93%) and Leu 2761 (45.07%), a difference of 604 votes.

The result was also in line with opinion polls which were run in the build up to the election on March 28. In Newsport’s poll on March 6, which drew 354 people, Kerr received 68% and Leu 32% of the vote.

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The following are the Chairmen and Mayors of the Shire of Douglas. Between the years 2008 - 2014 the Douglas region was amalgamated to the Cairns region by the State Government.