One of the things you do when you are covering public meetings is estimate the number of people in attendance. Depending on the size of the crowd this can become somewhat of a science. You count the number of people in a row times the number of rows in the room, plus the round tables, the stragglers, the standers and the wanderers. You add it all together and get a very rough estimate.
Such was the case this week at the Town’s public meeting on event tourism. No doubt people sitting behind me wondered why I kept gazing back while counting on my fingers.
The same cannot be said for the public meeting two days later on our Town’s roads. No crowd-estimating science was needed to determine the number of people at that meeting. I can tell you precisely. There were eight people from the general public. More specifically, there were eight people from the general public, nine politicians, seven municipal staff, one Chamber ED, four media, and two theatre volunteers in the 400-seat Algonquin Theatre.
Eight people showed up at a meeting in which a $2 million budget was being discussed! The meeting earlier in the week, ostensibly to discuss a $50,000 municipal grant to the Chamber of Commerce, garnered an audience of about 200 people.
What kind of message does this send to our municipal leaders?
Council has been grappling with the budget for months, trying to find more money to put into roads without increasing the levy too much. They have been forced to make some tough decisions. Two of those decisions came raining down on them this week. Ironman, at a cost to the community of $100,000 was cancelled and a $50,000 grant to the Chamber was nixed, both with the stated desire of moving more money into roads.
Council put their necks on the line, making tough budget decisions they say local taxpayers have been asking for and what happens? Two hundred people show up asking that the Town continue to fund the Chamber. Eight people show up to hear about roads.
What an insult to our politicians. I’m sorry people, but you can’t sit in your comfy chair at home and complain about your taxes and complain about the state of your road if you are not willing to participate in the solution.
Honestly, given how this week played out, I wouldn’t blame council if they added the Chamber’s $50,000 back on to the taxpayers.
Great points, Tom Stehr.
I would like to add that spending on events like the Ironman have a huge accelerator effect on the local economy. The numbers we did for this year’s IMM event showed that the approximately $300,000 spent to host the event yielded $1.4 million in additional tourist spending.
The fact is, less than 1/2 a percent is what is involved in this discussion whether our Chamber should be fully funded or not and continue to do the job of attracting tourists, businesses, big events and to keep those things from disappearing from our community.
I certainly hope that the Mayor and Town Council won’t try to nickel and dime the budget to death by having in-house people do all the organizing, grant applications, marketing and advertising instead of our experienced Chamber of Commerce.
A lot is riding on that 1/2 percent,… future growth, community spirit and pride, employment, big events and to no lesser degree…hope. I wonder how much roadwork can really be done for that $50,000 dollars compared to the $50,000 that can be used to engage the spirit of an entire community in events that can continue to boost us as one of the top tourist attractions and destinations in all of Ontario. Mr Mayor and Town Council, the citizens of the community that you serve have clearly spoken, now it’s your turn.
Apparently you’re taking my “paltry” comment waaaaaaaaay out of context, I’m not really sure how we went from money allotted for road repairs to people struggling to pay their hydro bills, but whatever!
Since when is $100,000 paltry.It is one percent on the tax levy.For those struggling to stay in their homes because of ridiculous hydro costs , $100,000.00 is not paltry.I repeat , the Mayor has nothing to apologize for. Council is a facilator not a source of event funding.
I commented on The Doppler when they ran the first story and I’ll comment again…..I don’t think it’s people wanting to criticize from our chairs, it’s the “why bother” attitude as the town clearly isn’t prepared to put in the necessary dollars….nor do they seem to prioritize the paltry dollars they are committing. Unfortunately, those dollars are a patch, not a permanent fix. As for the meeting itself, my husband saw the date for the meeting advertised for the week prior and we’re disappointed we did miss it and then we missed the actual date because we didn’t see it advertised. Having said that, I’m not sure we still would have gone as my faith in our town officials isn’t at an all time high!
Liz : Your comments remind me of my time on Council when we had a meeting hosted by Judge Hogg to decide on Council salaries .You know there are not many there when you can name them all .In attendance were The Judge , Gillian Brunette as your intrepid reporter , Denise Corry from the Town to record the minutes , Don Baker from the Huntsville Ratepayers Association and myself as an interested observer . I guess the expectation was that a responsible Council would make the right decision based on the Judges final report. Had we raised salaries by a significant amount we would have had another meeting of angry taxpayers screaming about our poor choices. Hugh commented then that had we hosted a meeting to decide on the future location of the Town Hall instead of rents on site we would have had hundreds at that meeting.
Agree with above comments. Find ways to bring money into town and concentrate on that. Fixing a bumpy road doesn’t help with the economy. And I doubt it’s the unemployed or minimum wage taxpayer just trying to get by who are looking for road improvement.
Interesting that roads was such a big public issue when council was campaigning to be elected such a short time ago. Now a $2 mil discussion draws a handful of people.
You continue to ignore the infrastructure of this Town at your peril. Neglect this at your peril. Stay the course Council ; it is wants vs needs .
I have to agree with Mr. Bell’s comment. The largest employer and industry in the area is tourism and in a one two punch council has decided to pull funding for any further expansion of said industry. Staying that course, within a few years, this town will have a negative growth both economically and population wise.
I think the results from the Town Public meetings this week should serve as a wake up call to the Mayor and Town Council.
Roads is Not Your Number One Priority. The Economy and Jobs is your number one priority.
What is the town doing to attract new businesses, attract new residents, attract tourists, as well as keep businesses from leaving and keep residents from leaving.