Council restricts parking

At the Feb. 3 council meeting here, council carried out business of interest to the town.

Parking bylaw

The circle at Water Street and Waterford Drive is now a No Parking zone. Because there were reports that it was difficult for school buses and even average vehicles to get around the circle when there were parked cars, council amended the bylaw to make this a No Parking zone. This is largely due to the new curb on the circle.

“It used to be that people passing would actually drive up on the grass area a little bit but now they can’t because the curb is so high and school buses weren’t able to get by,” Mayor Allan Alls said at the meeting.

After discussing if it would be appropriate to put restrictions on the No Parking times, council decided to pass a motion that restricts parking 24 hours a day.

“And I assume that if we get a lot of complaints then we’ll have to look at it again,” Alls said.

Acton Precast Products Inc.

Acton Precast Products Inc. is expanding again. Council approved a new site plan subject to various conditions to allow the company to build a 735 square metre addition on Wellington Road 50.

“We value our corporate business partners in our community and they’re extremely important to us today and in the future so I view any growth story as a positive story for our community,” councillor Matt Sammut said.

The additional conditions include a detailed grading, drainage and site servicing plan be reviewed and approved by the town and the storm water management report.

Budget meetings and deadlines

Alls announced at the council meeting that he has set a goal with the staff to have the town budget completed by the end of March.

“I think if we don’t set a goal we could be planning a budget by the end of October and that’s a little late,” he said.

Chief Administrative Officer Kathryn Ironmonger said meeting dates need to be established sooner rather than later. Councillors are giving their availability and dates will be set.  

Election process suggestions

Councillor Jeff Duncan and town clerk Dina Lundy both encourage people to come forward to the town and to council with any comments or concerns they have regarding an improved election process.

Lundy said the company that does the town ballots and election list has committed to working on a new list over the next four years that they hope will be more accurate and complete than the current list created from tax lists.

Residents are also encouraged to tell the town if the occupancy of their homes has changed (such as children moved out) so the new voters list can reflect those changes.

Natural Gas

Duncan is in the preliminary stages of talks with Halton Hills to potentially seek natural gas for Ballinafad in the future.

There are about 100 homes on the Erin side of Ballinafad and 70 homes on the Halton Hills side, and the gas line would also benefit the communities it would pass by on the way from Georgetown, Duncan said.

Those areas would also have the option to go to natural gas.

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