The recent community forum here seems to have captured the recipe for success.
Mayor Kelly Linton said he was pleased to host the winter town hall meeting at the Belwood hall on Feb. 5.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for a few months now,” Linton said before offering thanks to the Belwood Lions for co-hosting the event. He stressed this was the first of four town hall meetings to happen over the course of the year.
Township staff were on hand to provide information. With a near-packed room, Linton was also pleased to see the amount of community involvement.
Much of the initial part of the night echoed a previous mayor’s breakfast held late last month. Linton again spoke of the township’s online questionnaire, which he said provides an electronic means for residents to voice their opinions in a number of key areas.
“At 407 responses to date, we’re getting some really good feedback,” said Linton.
Councillors Steve Kitras and Steven VanLeeuwen updated audience members on projects completed during the past year – with an extended focus on Belwood.
Some of that work included a new accessible play structure, swings and monkey bars (in partnership with the Belwood and District Lions Club) at Belwood’s Maple Park.
Other Belwood projects included:
– a new walkway and landscaping at Belwood Cenotaph;
– reconstruction of Queen Street from Wellington Road 19 to George Street;
– reconstruction of George Street, including sidewalk and parking from Queen Street to North Broadway Street;
– repaving of Amalia Crescent and Sargent Boulevard and a portion of Allan Drive;
– reconstruction of Skeen Street, including drainage improvements;
– new way-finding signs at Belwood entrances;
– various improvements to the Belwood Community Hall (partnership with Belwood and District Lions Club); and
– sidewalk from Wellington Road 19 to George Street.
Kitras said one of the major projects for 2015 is fixing the roof of the Belwood Hall “because it is such an important part of Belwood, its history and community.”
He understands that bridges are important to that area of Centre Wellington – but the budget also meant some very difficult decisions on capital budgets.
“You can wish the province can give you money … but you can’t always rely on it in the (economic) climate we are in right now,” said Kitras.
As a result he described some decisions as responsible, but not very “romantic.” He said there were eight bridges out of service and another eight that could be out.
Kitras said the current planning will hopefully see the repair and reopening of most of those bridges within 10 years. He said he is excited about the plans and potential of economic development for the area.
With so much being downloaded onto municipalities from the province, Kitras said he believes something needs to be done to protect property owner rights.
Linton spoke briefly on the upcoming themes for the next four years.
While there are a number of specific projects coming forward, there are also a number of ongoing themes, Linton said. Those include open government and engaged community, strategic spending and enabling economic growth.
“People want to see results when they know a certain amount of their hard-earned money is being spent. They want to see real results,” he said. “We need to make certain our spending priorities are aligned with the community’s spending priorities.”
Linton said there is an appreciation that Centre Wellington is a great place to live and play, “but there is a concern out there that we are becoming a bedroom community for some of the cities around us.” The mayor stressed, “We need to be a good place to work as well.”
“We have to be smart about how we are going to attract business.” For existing businesses, Linton said the township needs to find a way to make it easy to remain and expand.
In the area of communication, Linton said the municipality needs to relay information in timely ways and provide various options “to communicate in ways they want to communicate.”
“It is not our jobs as leaders to do what we want to do – we have to do what people expect from us.” He also said he looked forward to more town hall meetings in various parts of Centre Wellington.
He quipped, “If people start throwing things, I might think differently.”
Infrastructure deficit
One of the first questions posed to council from resident Richard Wright was that while it seems the works department is doing a better job grading roads and working on bridges, he questioned capital budget plans that appear to depend on significant funds coming in to the municipality. He asked where that infrastructure funding would be coming from.
Managing director of corporate services Wes Snarr said during the capital budget process there was a lot of work on the 10-year capital budget process. He said to ensure the next five years of that plan are as realistic as possible “there are some assumptions built into it.”
Snarr said back in the 1990s the province was still providing generous administrative and financial assistance to municipalities, but, “That has changed substantially in the past 25 years.”
Snarr added there were also a number of grant programs that allowed Centre Wellington to replace a number of bridges – two thirds of that money came from the senior levels of government.
“That assumption is currently built into the 10-year forecast.” He said there has been recent discussion as to how valid that assumption is going forward, given the situation of the senior levels of government and the current economy.
Wright still wanted to know where the money would be coming from for some of the major projects.
Linton agreed there is an infrastructure challenge ahead.
“We don’t have enough cash and we’re not getting enough money from the province to do some of the big infrastructure projects we need to do.”
Linton added, “We don’t have the money right now and the province isn’t coming out with handouts, and I can’t imagine them doing it in the near future while they are in a deficit position.”
He said council needs to look after the best interests of the municipality.
“We can’t just keep putting our hand out to the province and asking them to fund it because we are in dire straights. It’s true, but we have to take destiny into our own hands. We have to develop a plan to deal with our infrastructure deficit … up to now, we’ve just been pushing it off.”
Slower speed petition
Tom Thompson who resides near the Shand intersection (along Wellington Road 18) at the old stone schoolhouse, presented a petition directed at Wellington County and Centre Wellington to reduce the speed limit from 80km/h to 60km/h on Wellington Road 18.
The hope, said Thompson, was to have the speed reduction on the road from the Fergus Sportsplex easterly for roughly five kilometres. The intent, he said, was to reduce serious injuries to both people and wildlife as a result of accidents.
Thompson said the other issue was to reduce the dust generated by transport trucks between 5am and midnight.
Parking improvements
When questioned about the status of parking in Fergus and Elora, councillor Mary Lloyd said that “as a business owner in downtown Fergus, I know what our residents are up against to find a place to park.”
She agreed a number of places have been displaced as a result of the work being done at the Fergus public library branch.
Lloyd said it wasn’t only the construction vehicles that came to use that space, but a construction lot was also created.
She noted the municipality undertook a study to measure public parking spaces in the downtown areas and there is enough room for 502 cars – when the construction is complete.
“The difficulty faced is that as business owners we will respect the space in front of our business and park on side streets or other locations. But we have a hard time enforcing that with our employees … and those cars are there for about eight hours.”
She said the message needs to be out there that if businesses want customers, the owners and employees must be prepared to park further away.
At the same time, Lloyd said she would hate to see the historic downtown core marred by a three-storey parking garage. “We just need to walk an extra block or two to work so our customers can get to us – it’s not a lack of spaces.”
Wind energy
Lorna Hutchison of 6th Line north of Belwood Lake wanted to know the status of the wind turbine proposal currently on the books for the area.
Mayor Linton believed talk on that issue “is done”.
He said there is currently a moratorium on windmills and “the province has been pretty clear.” However when asked for that assurance in writing, Linton said the municipality no longer has that authority, since it is in the hands of the province. “We haven’t had a whiff of anything,” said Linton.
Hutchison then asked where the mayor stood if something did arise.
“I think I’ve been very clear – as long as the people impacted by wind turbines are not in favour, myself and council are not in favour of wind turbines.”
Another resident said her concern was the spectre of proposed wind turbines in the area has meant she cannot sell her property, despite a headline in the Wellington Advertiser suggesting turbines did not affect property values (that suggestion was actually made in a University of Guelph study covered in an Advertiser article).
Linton said the municipality has little control over the Liberal government’s position on wind energy. “I’d love to put something in writing to say nothing will happen. But I think this is a dead issue.”
Linton said he did not anticipate any further development in the area.
Others in the audience said while the current owner of the wind energy contract is not seeking properties, there is interest which could surface at anytime.
Linton noted council’s resolution that Centre Wellington is not a willing host for turbines still stands. “Nothing has changed, and this council is sure not going to make any changes to that.”
Forum long overdue
Elora business owner Jim Keating congratulated council for hosting the forum.
“I think it is way overdue,” he said, noting previous meetings always seemed one-sided.
Keating offered his own list of ideas and suggestions. He said because of different needs, the township cannot layout industrial lands in the same way as a subdivision because some businesses require five acres while others may only need two. While Keating understood the plans to realign Colborne Street, he suggested installing a roundabout would prevent the road from becoming a speedway.
Keating later spoke of the needs for a Fergus bypass, stating, “Something has to be done because the south end is a bottleneck.” He said a long-term plan should also include extending the Hanlon north and have the plans in place before the land is otherwise developed.
Mayor Linton thanked residents, staff and councillors for coming out and said he intends to hold another meeting this spring in a yet-to-be-determined location.
