The Florence Mayoral seat hasn’t changed in over 20 years, but now the vice mayor is stepping up to bat.
“I’ve known Julie a long time,” said Kenton County family circuit judge Christopher J. Mehling at Tuesday night’s Florence City Council meeting. “Just like I knew her father for a long time. Look what I’m wearing.”
“Are they red socks?” asked Mayor-elect Julie Metzger Aubuchon.
“Yep, just like he always wore,” Mehling said. “He would be so proud.”
And with that, Metzger Aubuchon raised her right hand and took the oath to become the next Florence mayor.
Metzger Aubuchon has sat on the city council as vice mayor for the entire tenure of Diane Whalen’s term as mayor. Whalen and Metzger Aubuchon both had parents in government before they followed in their footsteps.
Whalen was the Florence mayor for 20 years, just like her father, Hop Ewing, who served as mayor from 1960 to 1981. Metzger Aubuchon saw her father, Ferd Metzger, in public service, and it was his time on city council from 1986 to 1998 that encouraged her to run for office in the first place.
Metzger Aubuchon, a Florence native, has owned Metzger Eye Care in Florence for 27 years, where she also followed her father’s footsteps to become an optometrist and took over the business from him in 1995.
She also served as the chair of the Planning and Zoning Committee, a designee to Boone County Early Childhood Fund Board, and formerly served on the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments. She is also the previous chair of the Northern Kentucky Health Department.
Metzger Aubuchon said she wants to “make sure our neighborhoods are vital” with access to parks and well-maintained streets and sidewalks.
Metzger Aubuchon also supports continuing to invest in public safety, and said she was in favor of the recent approval of a fourth firehouse for the Florence Fire Department. She said the new addition will not only decrease response times, but lower insurance premiums for homeowners.
Having worked with Whalen across her tenure as mayor, Metzger Aubuchon said she would like to draw on Whalen’s experience when necessary and to create a smooth transition for the city.