It was a full house with between 60 and 80 residents attending Centre Wellington’s open town hall meeting at Heritage River on Nov. 26.
Mayor Kelly Linton said the fourth seasonal town hall meeting spoke of steps taken in 2015 to ramp up communications, council priorities and initiatives, healthy growth and reliable infrastructure.
“One of the things important to me when I ran for mayor was that we really ramp up citizen engagement and connecting with businesses and citizens in our area.”
Linton spoke of initiating online citizen surveys and seasonal town hall meetings.
“We wanted to open up an electronic opportunity for widespread input.”
Linton also said he loved being able to take part in discussions with various organizations and local groups.
He said monthly Newspaper updates are appearing through the Mayor’s Monthly Minute in the Wellington Advertiser.
Linton also noted he is heard on the GrandFM each Tuesday as well.
He said council works with the local chamber of commerce and does interviews on Cogeco cable.
In addition, Linton is participating in Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
He added that the township’s communications officer Kendra Martin is working to bring the township into 21st century when it comes to social media.
“There will be a township Facebook and Twitter page in the near future.
“For a municipality our size it is really important to have a dedicated position when it comes to communicating to our citizens.”
As in previous town hall sessions, Linton stated the live-streaming of council meetings is coming soon.
The intent is now to have the process in place by January.
The township is now also sending out subscription-based e-Newsletters on certain functions within the town.
Speaking on good government, Linton said “this is an area I am very passionate about. I think that open government and having frequent communication and interaction is critical to having institutions at a local level that actually work for people.”
“We’re living in a time where the gap between local government of what people understand the government does and what it really does … is growing.
“If we don’t do things to reinvigorate our local institutions in 10 years we’re going to be in trouble.
“We can’t have it where people feel the only way they can have a say in what goes on is by protest. Protesting is fine from time to time, but if that is the only way people feel they can have input, it is because other things are not working right."
Councillor Don Fisher took the floor to talk about reliable infrastructure.
He said the challenge is for a small population of 28,000 to support projects in a land area of 409 square kilometres.
Even though council set out five priorities, Fisher said there is a superpriority – infrastructure – which dominates the budget and what council does.
At the same time, Fisher said the municipality is growing with new infrastructure needs .
Fisher said Centre Wellington has an infrastructure deficit because funding has not caught up with municipal needs.
He commented briefly on the provincial download of the St. David Street bridge in Fergus – bringing the number of bridges owned by the township to 108.
Fisher believed Centre Wellington currently has 20 bridges which are either closed or at risk.
“It just plays havoc with our rural transportation – farmers trying to get from field to field or for rural people getting to town.”
He said the township faces a significant infrastructure deficit and must do something about it.
“… and we can’t rely on anyone else to come in and help us out.”
Fisher said the township has taken some action.
The township has an asset management plan and initiated the first year of a 2% dedicated capital levy program.
The plan provides an outline of when these repairs or replacements would take place.
“And that is just to catch up.”
He said there is a considerable amount of township infrastructure dating back to the 1930s.
He said council has established a 10-year plan to replace or rebuild 16 bridges by means of the 2% dedicated capital levy.
Fisher agreed that the amount is a tax increase, but that it will strictly be used to replace or repair infrastructure.
He said the first bridge dealt with under the program was the 8th Line bridge and which was completed ahead of schedule.
Fisher noted council recently completed its capital budget discussions.
Though still awaiting final approval, Fisher said “we’ve actually accelerated this … we’re going to build more bridges sooner making use of internal financial.”
The 2% dedicated levy is still required … but using debt financing will get more bridges built faster.
“At the same time we’re begging the province to take responsibility for Highway 6/St. David Street … it is a huge burden for a lower tier municipality to take care of a major provincial highway … if anything happens to that bridge … the highway is closed,” Fisher said.
Until Nov. 25, the intent was to replace/reconstruct four bridges each year, Fisher said.
“Now we are looking at maybe seven bridges if possible.”
In addition, Fisher said the township is initiating a tree management plan and installing emergency power generation at the Fergus Sportsplex.
He explained the centre is a major building in the town ship which would be utilized if there were a disaster – such as power outage, heat wave or natural disaster.
One of the priorities is also to expand sidewalk and trail connections, Fisher added, which adds to active transportation goals and “serves to unite the community.”
He quipped, “you may have heard a little something about commercial water taking recently,” referring to the Nestlé Waters proposal on Middlebrook Road.
“That is obviously a huge issue for us … and is going to be a huge issue for the next year or two.
“The township will plan now for its inevitable growth to retain a vibrant and successful community and a high quality of life in the future.”
Fisher said that right now Centre Wellington’s population is around 28,000, but by 2031 that number is expected to increase by 50 per cent.
“This is an area which is going to experience significant growth.” He said Centre Wellington is close to the GTA – but not part of it, nor of Hamilton or Waterloo Region.
Additionally, Centre Wellington does not have to deal with Ontario Green Belt policy restrictions.
“We are being targeted by people looking to develop. And this is also an attractive area in which to live,” he said.
In addition, Fisher said Centre Wellington is required to meet density targets set out in provincial Places to Grow legislation.
“We don’t have a lot of leeway on that. The province is keen to eliminate urban sprawl and want to see compact development.
“We have to deal with that and that brings into design standards, location heritage protection, traffic and environmental sensitivity.
“People place a very high value on small town feel in this community.”
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to destroy what is here just because people are coming here. That is the crux,” Fisher said. “People are coming and we have to manage it in such a way that we retain and preserve what is here …”
