By Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press
Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy and Deputy Mayor Rob Shepley put themselves in the hot seat on Monday night, as the duo invited area residents to participate in an open mic night inside the Shaheen Community Room at the Essex Centre Sports Complex.
The open forum event gave residents an opportunity to weigh-in on any municipal matters they wanted, whether it was to ask questions, provide feedback, or forward concerns.
Councillors Kim Verbeek, Jason Matyi, Joe Garon, and Katie McGuire-Blais were also in attendance to help answer questions and gather feedback provided. So too was Essex’s new CAO Kate Giurissevich.
Amongst the topics discussed during the open mic night involved parking in Colchester, using town recreational facilities to their fullest potential in terms of programming and rentals, the importance of protecting the environment on public and residential lands and the need to ask the Province to repeal Bill 5.
Other concerns included potential standing water issues at certain development sites and concerns about future parking in the area, and how even small amounts of rain cover the sidewalk adjacent to Essex Public School.
Residents also applauded the new wayfinding signage, asked if the Town will host a municipal service open house like Kingsville recently did, voiced concern with overgrown weeds at the entrance of the ERCA trail, asked about plans for the former Harrow High School facility if it does not sell, and how the Town builds its reserves.
The local decision-makers were also asked if the Town will issue a residential satisfaction survey, for which Mayor Bondy believes the next Term of Council would be ideal to do so with a third-party conducting it.
Concerns with parking on Medora Avenue and Harvey Street, where vehicles end up getting parked any which way and can end up blocking sidewalks, was also mentioned. There are no lines to direct parking. Councillor McGuire-Blais noted the issue is the Town’s By-Law enforcement needs to be more proactive and start ticketing. Bondy added the Town underwent an organization review, where one of the improvements identified could be moving the By-Law Department under the Legal and Legislative Department, and she believes that will help.
Bondy and Giurissevich expressed the importance of using the Town’s online Report a Problem tool for many of the concerns brought up during the Open Mic Night. This online tool is currently being upgraded, giving residents who enter an issue the ability to track their file. It will also be more user-friendly.
In providing an update on the Essex Sport Fields, which the Town is in the process of developing, Giurissevich noted the Town recently learned it was denied a grant it applied for. So, staff will continue presenting phased-in approaches at budget time. The Town will continue to apply for grants in the meantime.
She also spoke of how the Town recently approved a Naming Rights and Sponsorship Policy, which will help in the process of garnering that type of revenue for this facility. Councillor Verbeek will have a Notice of Motion in the near future on the Essex Sport Fields regarding looking at a solid plan moving forward if the Town has to move ahead without grant funding.
Bondy noted that when the Town collects public feedback on budgeting, there is overwhelming support from residents to put dollars into roads, so it is hard to take money out of road funding to move recreational programming along faster. One resident wondered if residents were concerned about one particular road, and that was why the results weighted heavily to that service.
Councillor Garon added a lot of money has to be put into roads ongoing to ensure the Town doesn’t have to upgrade many at once.
Garon noted the Town is looking at a partnership with the Pickleball Barn development planned to share space at the Essex Sports Fields. An issue is getting power and water to the site. That all takes money. He believes the fields will be utilized starting next year. The Town has had trouble getting the grass growing without water at the site.
One concern involved getting on an agenda to speak as a delegate, and the possibility of getting turned down due to time if the topic is not already on the agenda. The Town issues meeting agendas on Thursday afternoons for the meeting the following Monday, which is a small window to register to speak on a matter included.
Giurissevich said the Clerk’s department is reviewing the Procedural By-Law to look at this matter. She added the Town does not want to issue meeting agendas too early as staff want to ensure information is as current as possible. Councillor Matyi will have a Notice of Motion coming to Council on this in the near future.
Leave a Reply