Mark Pol (37) has completed his first real working week as mayor of Texel. He was sworn in on December 20, after which the Christmas recess and many New Year’s gatherings followed. Now the normal work starts and everything really has to go down. Pol is crossing to Texel from Almere, but he already knows the island well. His love for Texel arose as a child, during holidays with his parents.
“It feels very good. I feel very welcome. Everywhere I go, the people I speak to are enthusiastic, they want to talk about the island and what they are doing,” says Mark Pol in the port of Oudeschild. “That gives enormous motivation to continue working here.”
Oudeschild was the gateway for Pol’s Texel adventure, which started at a young age. “My Texel holiday actually started here. I used to sail with my parents on the IJsselmeer and on the Wadden, and we regularly went to Texel. We would enter the harbor here and lie in the passing harbor. And then catch crabs in the harbor and of course eat some fish.”
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Mark Pol was previously a councilor and alderman in Almere, after which he left public administration for a while. “I wanted to go back, and being mayor is of course a very nice position,” he explains, “But I only wanted to do it in a place where I really feel something, have something to do with it. Even if only because you have to move with the whole family.”
And that will happen soon. Pol is currently still in a temporary home, but that won’t last long. “We have bought a house, we can move in in April. We are currently still bouncing between Almere and Texel, but the family will be coming over in February. So we can start settling down then. But we are looking forward to moving in April in our new house”
Ambition
“Texel of course has its own identity,” says Pol when asked about his ambition as mayor. “We have seen in recent years, and a lot has been said about this, that it sometimes comes under pressure. The balance between good living for our own residents and the pressure of tourism, guests who come from outside, is very important. I hope to be able to contribute to that.”
For Pol, the first weeks were mainly about getting to know each other. Thanks to all the meetings around Christmas and New Year, the new mayor was able to quickly immerse himself in Texel life. “The amount of people who introduce themselves from an association or an initiative that they work on together, that gives the island so much strength. That keeps us afloat, you could say.”