Stephen Vance, Editor
Another year has come to an end, and what a year it has been in the Municipality of Meaford.
2015 was somewhat of a transition year in this municipality as a newly elected council with four rookies found their feet, while ratepayers hoped that the new councillors would stand by their campaign promises.
For a scribe like me, a new council, especially with four rookie members along with a first-time mayor, can be frustrating and refreshing at the same time. Refreshing because the council chamber can become a very stale place without fresh voices and fresh ideas, so a new council can push that stale hot air right out the door. Frustrating because new councillors are bound to make some mistakes in the early going, and as tempting as it can be to go after those mistakes in the same way I would with a seasoned council, it’s only fair to let them first find their feet.
Year two of a council term however, the gloves come off – so for me at least, 2016 will certainly be more fun if nothing else.
The new council has certainly not looked as green as it actually is.
Sure they couldn’t follow their own rules when doling out the annual community grants, but when it was pointed out, they quickly called upon staff to give the program an overhaul. Sadly, council couldn’t bring themselves to take the advice of staff who recommended turning the administration of the grant program over to a third party with a world of experience administering grant programs – and that is one of the biggest mistakes this council made this year, but we won’t likely see proof of that until the Spring arrives, and decisions need to be made about who will receive grants, and how much they will receive. I want to believe that council will follow the new policy, but I have my doubts – prove me wrong councillors, please!
Council and the municipality have been busy this year, and a lot of fantastic initiatives have been undertaken.
The conversion of the 720 street-light fixtures to LED technology will save the municipality a lot of money in the coming years, and the fact that the project didn’t take a dime out of ratepayers’ pockets is commendable.
Council also approved the use of off road vehicles on municipal roads, though not yet in the downtown core. I say yet, because the local ATV enthusiasts made it clear that they needed access to fuel and food, and those services are located in the urban area. Look for council to eventually find a way to accommodate the need for food and fuel if not in the coming year, then perhaps toward the end of their term. It only makes sense (and I say this as someone that can’t stand the sight, sound or smell of ATVs, but strongly believe that council made the right decision in allowing them on our roads – we’re a rural farming community for crying out loud, not a slick urban centre, of course ATVs should be allowed on our roads). If you are going to allow the off-road vehicles to use municipal roads, why shouldn’t our businesses be able to benefit?
Another area that Meaford has excelled in 2015 is in accessibility. Ensuring that municipal facilities are accessible to those of us with disabilities – from those in wheelchairs to those with vision or hearing disabilities – is not as easy as it might sound, and it isn’t cheap either, but Meaford has been making huge strides in this area, and has promised there is more to come.
As our councillors look toward 2016, I suspect that they are both excited and a little wary.
A new coat of arms should be completed in the first half of the coming year, and council is hoping that the fact that it will pay homage to all three distinct areas of the municipality will help to eradicate the us versus them mentality that has been so destructive over the past decade. While the new coat of arms is a long overdue acknowledgement of our amalgamated municipality, even more important is that this council has put their money where their campaign mouths were, and have made mending fences with our rural areas a top priority, and they seem to be making headway. Let’s hope that continues – peace amongst our rural and urban areas is blissful indeed.
2016 won’t likely be smooth sailing for councillors however.
Councillors should expect their voice-mail and email in-boxes to fill up quickly once the winter weather finally arrives, and the municipality begins tinkering with the delivery of winter road control services in an effort to find efficiencies. The only thing that might make the entire initiative bearable for councillors is if some significant savings can actually be found – and nobody gets hurt.
Another likely source of frustration for council in the coming year will be the proposed redevelopment of a section of 19th century buildings on Sykes Street. The community seems to be fairly evenly divided on the issue of preservation of the building façades, and no matter the outcome of the upcoming OMB hearing (if I were a betting man, I would put my money on the developer in this case), councillors will most likely hear from the community – especially when demolition begins.
Like any other municipality we in Meaford have our challenges, but we’ve also got something that a lot of other places don’t have – a fantastically beautiful waterfront community. A community that is on the rebound after a few years of tough times, that brought with them some tough to swallow tax increases.
We’ve had a couple years of less than two percent property tax increases, our councillors don’t yell at each other or slam their desks in anger as they have in the past, and our staff turnover seems to have stabilized over the last couple years. Perhaps that is why 2015 was so productive in this municipality.
Those are all victories for this municipality. Let’s hope the year to come brings more of those victories – it’ll make the inevitable (though rare of late) failures easier to accept.
Happy New Year!
