Dear Editor:
Some readers may recall my attempts in 2021 to get Centre Wellington council to reconsider a decision that essentially went against the preferred option of 85% of people who completed a township survey relative to the re-shaping of St. David Street North.
A petition against this decision with over 1,000 signatures was also presented to council at that time but after deliberation, the attempt to reconsider was defeated.
After the election of our new council at the end of last year, I have communicated with the new mayor and all new councillors to ask them to reconsider this decision and while I did receive a couple of responses, the general answer was that it is a “done deal” decided by the previous council.
Since then, I have distributed flyers to all residents and businesses along St. David and St. Andrew Streets encouraging people and business owners to contact their local councillor and the mayor if they had concerns about the project (such as the removal of more than 20 parking spaces) and now I read that the project is going to cost around $8.8 million when it was initially projected to cost approximately $4 million.
Surely this cost increase and additional tax burden to our community should be enough to revisit this project? But no, it will soon go to tender and is scheduled to start early in 2024.
This got me thinking about other recent projects such as the East Mill Street reconstruction, the Middlebrook bridge removal, the new township operations centre and several new housing and apartment developments, most of which have had public meetings but all of which are still moving ahead, regardless of any community concerns.
Whether you are in support of or against these projects, it just makes me wonder, does your voice really count in municipal politics?
Ed O’Shaughnessy,
Fergus