Midwestern

Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh Leaves Successful 2016 Behind

The Reeve of Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh says on balance, 2016 was a good year for the municipality.

Ben Van Diepenbeek says the highlight of the year was the start of construction on the new Bluff of Huron development. Van Diepenbeek says the development consists of 500 new homes over the next fifteen years and about twenty homes have already been built. Van Diepenbeek says they've also brought in a new shoreline tree protection bylaw to restrict the number of trees residents can take down along the shoreline.

Van Diepenbeek says they even got a break on their Ontario Municipal Partnership Funding; while most municipalities saw a cut in their funding A-C-W got more this year. He has no idea how that happened but that was offset to some degree by an increase in policing costs of 181-thousand dollars and that represents a seven per cent increase in their budget. He adds overall they'll likely have to raise taxes a little but not too much.

Van Deipenbeek adds with the help of a consultant, they've also created a strategic five-year plan for the township and they've also voted to go with telephone and internet voting in the next municipal election. He says they're hoping to set up a satellite station with staff at St. Helens to help members of the Amish community.

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