Council approves budget and downtown market : Shelburne Free Press : https://shelburnefreepress.ca

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Council approves budget and downtown market

Great news out of Shelburne Council Monday evening, for fans of the Shelburne Farmers' Market who have been hoping for a more accessible location for the venue. Council supported moving the market to the downtown core for the approaching season. The 2015 budget also passed at Council February 23rd after the public presentation of the budget at the previous Council meeting.
The Shelburne BIA made the recommendation to Council that the Farmer's Market be relocated to First Avenue West in the parking lot beside the former Co-op and across from Trinity United Church. Initiatives to originally place the market in Jack Downey Park two years ago when it opened failed, and the market, which has been highly praised for its quality, has struggled to attract crowds to its lovely, but somewhat out of the way location at Besley's farm. Deputy Mayor Geoff Dunlop called the suggested location, “A good compromise.”
The new location for the market borders Highway 10 giving excellent visibility to heavy cottage traffic during the summer months as well as making it easily accessible to seniors and town residents formerly unable to make the trip to Besley's farm. Trinity United Church has offered an arrangement with the market to provide hydro and open their washrooms to the public on Thursday's from May to October when the market will be operating.
The Town Treasurer Carol Sweeney brought forth a by-law to adopt the estimates for the sums required during 2015 for the general purposes of the Town. Council adopted the estimates of $6,762,192 of revenues and expenditures for the budget, which Sweeney said “is exactly the budget that was presented” previously. The 2015 Shelburne and District Fire Board budget of $360,526 representing a 3% increase over 2014 was also presented for circulation to participating municipalities for approval.
Jamie Witherspoon of WSP engineering firm gave a delegation to Councillors updating them on Well #7 supply and water main contract 2. Avertex Utility Solutions Inc. was the only bidder on the tender by the closing date February 7th, submitting a bid of $2,187,621. WSP reviewed the bid and found it reasonable, referring to Avertex as “a local company with a good history of performing contracts for the Town of Shelburne” and recommended the contract be awarded to the company.
Discussions arose over the future capacity of the Well. Witherspoon assured Council that Well 7 allows for future growth increases and Town CAO John Telfer said “the infrastructure is in place” for growth and the focus of future expenditures would be in upgrades to pumps. A motion was moved by Councillor Randy Chambers and seconded by Councillor Dan Sample to move forward with the project as recommended.
Council adopted the terms of reference for the Parks and Recreation advisory committee as recommended with some amendments as suggested by Councillor Egan to bring it in line with the Town's Procedural by-law. Most importantly, Council wanted to see an increase in the number of public member to five from the originally recommended two. Councillors felt it was an important committee that would attract a lot of public interest and they wanted to see a broader public base for advisory.
After the Council meeting ended, Councillors met and welcomed Tommy West, the morning news anchor from the new local radio station 101.5 my FM. Mr. West, present in the gallery at Monday night's Council, said the station will be running 24 hour local news in the Dufferin Caledon area.

By Marni Walsh

Post date: 2015-02-25 21:20:23
Post date GMT: 2015-02-26 02:20:23
Post modified date: 2015-03-04 21:50:20
Post modified date GMT: 2015-03-05 02:50:20