An emotional farewell to Port

Former Port Washington Mayor Marty Becker got choked up Tuesday night as he said his farewell to the city.

He wasn’t just leaving his post as mayor after one term — he is leaving the city he loves and moving to the Town of Cedarburg to be closer to family.

City Clerk Susan Westerbeke presented Becker with a key to the city and a plaque commemorating his 11 years of service — as a member of the Police and Fire Commission from 2010 to 2018 and as mayor from 2018 until Tuesday.

“We hope you will come back and visit often,” she said.

“You really got me with this,” Becker said.

The presentation came just after Becker gave his farewell, thanking city staff members and officials as well as city residents.

“One of the best things was I made some new friends, and I think they’re going to be friends forever,” he said.

After weeks of teasing a 43-page PowerPoint presentation as his farewell — “I’ve lived in Port Washington for 43 years with the lovely Mrs. Becker, so I thought one for every year,” he said — Becker delivered a shorter version.

It included photos of Becker as a child in 1957, fishing in Port with his father, a stringer of perch in his hand. It was something they did every other weekend during the season.

“We fished with cane poles, caught perch and took them to my Grandma Becker’s,” he said. “I was 8 years old.”

There were photos of him and his wife at social events, his last day at Port Apothecary in 2004, the pharmacy he began and operated for decades. He concluded the presentation with “the greatest picture of all,” an Ozaukee Press cover photo of him and his grandchildren lighting the city’s Christmas tree.

“They are the reason I gave up the mayorship, for these kids,” he said.

Mayor Ted Neitzke, who took the oath of office Tuesday night, thanked Becker for his service, not just as a city official but as a businessman whose shop was “central to our city. You were just being a steward and someone we could all trust.”