Mark Greene, Elon’s newly-retired mayor pro tem, might’ve had an inkling that he wouldn’t leave empty-handed when he gave up his position this week after 16 years in the town’s municipal leadership.
But Greene may not have been prepared for the sheer scale of his sendoff when he formally bid farewell to the rest of Elon’s town council on Tuesday.
That evening, Elon’s mayor Emily Sharpe saluted her second-in-command with an official proclamation that summed up his contributions to the town’s municipal government. Sharpe went on to present Greene with a framed copy of this proclamation.
If that wasn’t enough, the outgoing mayor pro tem also received a glass, book-shaped “trophy” in recognition of his municipal service, a framed print that depicted a decades-old scene of downtown Elon, and a cluster of helium-filled party balloons to commemorate Greene’s “Sweet Sixteen.” In the meantime, the town’s staff had laid out a fine spread of finger foods and confections in honor of Greene and the three council members who were sworn in to office later that evening.
With all these tokens of appreciation, the mayor pro tem was fortunate to have brought along a few extra hands to his final town council meeting. Greene’s guests that evening included his wife Siobhan, his daughter Aislinn, his son-in-law Kevin, and his granddaughter Kennedy.
