The mayor of Huron East has raised his concerns about the cost of construction and its affect on residents’ property taxes.
Bernie MacLellan asked county staff for a report on the estimated cost to get three projects shovel-ready. Those projects are the apartments going up on Gibbons Street in Goderich, a round-about at the intersection of Airport Line and County Road 83 in South Huron, and the traffic light at Highway 4 and County Road 25 in Blyth.
He said the round-about and traffic light projects are smaller, but said all three of them are either going to cut into reserves or raise the levy over the next few years.
“I do believe in the Gibbons Street project as far as having some more RGI apartments and spots for homeless people and services for homeless people to help try and alleviate the problem in Huron County,” said MacLellan. “I 100 per cent agree with the whole idea.”
MacLellan says he would like to see council do more lobbying to try and get either the province, the federal government, or private-public partnerships together to help cover the costs. At a $20 million price tag, it seems to be a lot to be adding to the tax base.
“Anytime there are grant programs from any other level of government, one of the criteria always seems to be you have to have that project already shovel-ready. And I understand that because if you weren’t willing to get it shovel-ready, maybe you didn’t think it was a worth while project to begin with,” he said.
MacLellan says all he’s asking for at this point is an estimate of what it would cost to make all three of the projects shovel-ready. If a grant program comes along, he would like the county to be in a position to take advantage of it.
