Minto Mayor George Bridge emphasized his record of debt reduction and fiscal responsibility, while challenger Terry Fisk promised to get answers to concerns affecting local residents during a candidates meeting hosted by the Minto Chamber of Commerce here on Sept. 22.
The chamber had asked candidates to specifically address economic development in their presentations and Bridge expressed enthusiasm for the topic.
“I could be up here for three hours. It’s a passion of mine,” he stated.
Bridge noted he is also the chair of Wellington County’s economic development committee, “which was created through the work of Warden Chris White and myself.”
During the 2010 election campaign, Bridge said he “talked about running the town as a business.”
“In 2010 our debt was higher than our reserves,” said Bridge, who pointed out the reverse is now true, with the town having $2.5 million more in reserves than it owes.
Bridge said that ratio puts the town in “a great position” to take advantage of federal and provincial funds that become available through future shared infrastructure programs.
“I also wanted an open and responsible council,” said Bridge, who pointed out that all council meetings are now video recorded and posted online.
“I know you guys watch them,” he said explaining he often hears from residents about the content of the meeting videos.
“That’s great to see that because we don’t get a lot of people out at council.”
Bridge said a strong relationship developed between the town and local business community is among the keys to successful local economic development.
“We have a great relationship between the town and the chamber,” he said. “It’s important that the town works with the business people.”
The mayor said he has enjoyed meeting community members and “creating real action plans for Minto,” but added that Minto’s enthusiastic volunteer base is what makes implementation of those plans possible.
“Here in Minto (volunteers) add an immense amount of value to our communities. I look around this room and see there’s a lot of people here who are on those committees, giving back to the place where you live.”
Bridge pointed out the current council “thought outside the box” for such economic development projects as the purchase of the former Harriston Senior School property that was sold to a developer for residential construction and the decision to sell the former ball diamond property in Clifford for residential development, while creating a new Sports field on land at the newly-developed Rotary Park.
While complimenting Minto staff for their efficiency and dedication, Bridge noted the number of municipal employees in the by town has actually been reduced by 3.75 per cent in the last four years.
“Being a full-time mayor of Minto for the past four years has been an incredible, exciting and rewarding experience,” Bridge said.
Fisk didn’t spend much time dwelling on past accomplishments during his turn at the microphone.
Holding up a set of election pamphlets from his 2010 campaign he quipped, “I’m the type of person who finds it difficult to talk about things I’ve done in the past. These are cards I had when I was successful as deputy mayor four years ago, we had part of a box left and my wife asked me to bring a box and see if we could get rid of them.”
Fisk said he is proud that most of the goals listed on the pamphlet have been accomplished.
Providing responsible leadership was one of those goals.
“I want to be head of council because of what we were able to accomplish working as team,” said Fisk, adding improved staff morale and fiscal responsibility were among the other goals he feels have been attained.
Fisk said he also promised to “be vigilant about keeping the (Palmerston and District) hospital open.
“I think our hospital is very, very vibrant now,” he stated, adding he feels there is little danger of the facility being shut down in the future.
Fisk, who represents Minto on both Saugeen Valley and Maitland Valley conservation authority boards, also cited environmental initiatives, such as having council and staff members voluntarily donate one cent per kilometre from mileage claims to the Trees for Minto program as sources of personal pride. He suggested in the future an anaerobic digester could be added to the Harriston lagoon system to generate energy for the industrial park, allowing cheap energy to be offered as an incentive to industries locating there.
Fisk credited the “exceptional staff we have,” for the success of most initiatives.
“We as a council get all the accolades,” he said. However, he added, “It’s our staff. They are doing the legwork and doing the groundwork. We approve all of these initiatives and maybe sometimes we tweak something, but very seldom is something sent back.”
That said, he indicated changes could be made in the area of staffing.
“We need to tweak a couple of departments. We need to maybe have some better succession planning in some departments.”
Fisk said another thing he is concerned about is the quality of education locally. He said recently-released EQAO scores for Palmerston Public School are alarming.
“It’s abysmal,” he stated, noting reading and writing and math scores at the school all came in around 30 per cent.
“That’s unacceptable. They are part of our families. They are citizens of our municipality so it’s up to us to see why we’re having scores like this. If I’m your mayor we’ll be getting answers to why we’re getting scores like that at one of our schools,” Fisk pledged.
Fisk promised to represent all citizens of Minto if elected.
“It doesn’t matter what your status is in the community, if you have an issue I’m going to take a stand for you.”
The meeting format did not include a public question and answer period. Instead, candidates mingled with the crowd following their formal presentations and answered questions individually.
For meeting coverage of Minto councillor and county councillor candidates, see article in front section of this week’s Advertiser.
