Editor,
Steven Vance’s recent editorial certainly highlights a number of good points (as he always does), regarding the capacity of Meaford to accommodate the potential effects of this construction phase activity and employment if the Pumped Storage Project does move ahead. Perhaps a broader perspective of this issue would be to look at our very nearby neighbour Owen Sound, which currently has close to 1,000 rental units under construction, along with multiple other planed & approved housing projects underway. It would be reasonable to predict that a fair number of these workers might chose to reside in Owen Sound, with their significant housing, retail and other municipal resources already in place.
In terms of logistics and efficiency, having “hundreds” of dump trucks drive through our 3 & possibly 4 traffic lights along Sykes St. every day makes no sense, given the project location is 12 kilometres from urban Meaford, with alternate roadways available.
Unfortunately, the long-ago disappearance of most of Meaford’s industrial base, a significant and growing demographic of non-working retired folks and its vast amount of “lower taxed” agricultural land will continue to perpetuate the current fiscal challenges we have to maintain and repair our streets, improve our aging but important recreational facilities such as the pool, the arena, bridges and harbour, not to mention the very costly waste water treatment capital outlay. Without any financial contributions & benefits that could accrue from a Pumped Storage facility (similar to the current Military Base PILT contribution), it would appear that “we cannot get there from here”.
Our growing and heavily volunteer based tourist resource certainly is helpful, however much more attention to the overall appearance of the towns Municipal common property infrastructure would go a long way to make visitors think it is “The Place to Be”.
John Richardson, Meaford
