Ladies
and Gentlemen
Hard
to believe but summer is pretty well wrapped up. A summer of many amazing
events in our community:
-
Some 240 delegates attended the Ontario Heritage
Conference in Midland
-
Our first annual and very successful Butter
Tart festival
-
Canada Day was a walk in the park
-
Tugfest saw some 29 tugs from many parts of
Ontario descend on our harbour
-
The majesty of the three tall ships dockside was
breathtaking
Yes,
there were some darker days such as the cancellation of Bikefest and the continuing
pressure from a slow economy, but all in all a good summer in one of the best
Towns in Ontario.
Looking
forward to the fall, a few things to watch for:
-
Developments with the Midland Waterfront (the
Unimin property). We will try to keep all
meetings open to the public – this is your waterfront
-
Economic development efforts will focus on
bringing new healthcare sector jobs to our community. You will likely see a new area Economic Development
Officer
-
The Town will review OPP service costing. A decision is most likely after the next
election. Again we intend to have all meetings open to the public
-
Budget deliberations start this month and will
feature a continued effort by Council to keep taxes down
-
And lastly, don’t forget this is the lead up
to the 2014 municipal elections. Should
be interesting.
So
on with the work.
On
Monday September 9th at 6:00
pm a closed meeting of Council will take place to address a number of personal and
legal issues. The September General Committee starts at 7:00 pm. The agenda
includes:
-
Discussion of our upcoming election process
-
A review of surplus municipal lands with
possible disposition
-
Discussion of the OPP costing review process
-
Direction given on the need for a new
engineering position
-
A variety of proposals from the Parks and
Recreation department about how to increase revenues/fees
Depending
upon the direction given for the engineering position, a Special Meeting of
Council will be held immediately after the General Committee meeting to ratify
the position.
Tuesday
at 10:00 am will see a different type of County Council meeting. The County
governance committee has directed that the County should now discuss its business
as the Committee of the Whole. This new
form of governance will be put to the test on Tuesday.
Wednesday
September 11th starts the 2014 budget season. The first meeting will be held at the Town
Hall starting at 6:00 pm and will cover the operating budget. The public is
encouraged to input to the budget process either by contacting Council or
staff. In addition a special session on
the budget will be held for public input on Wednesday September 25th
at 6:00 pm
Thursday
September 12th look for a lot of water specialists to be in Town as
the Ontario Water Works Conference will meet at the NSSRC.
Weekend
On
Sunday the 15th the Legion Drumhead ceremony will take place at 2:00
pm at the Lakeview Cemetery. While always a special event, this year’s ceremony
will feature a delegation from the US who has come to remember a US civil war comrade
buried in our cemetery.
Gord
McKay
Be
part of Midland’s Year of Getting Involved - 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment