South Huron Mayor Maureen Cole. (Photo by Bob Montgomery)South Huron Mayor Maureen Cole. (Photo by Bob Montgomery)
Midwestern

Recreational Needs To Be Studied In South Huron

The mayor of South Huron says this year's budget includes $100,000 for a feasibility study on the recreational needs of the community.

Maureen Cole says council hopes to work with a committee of community members to determine what the community wants and what the municipality can afford, and then how they can get provincial and federal funding to help them do it.  They hope to get that started very early this year, she says.

She explains the municipality currently pays $1.7-million for recreation but council has committed to an overall cost of $7.5-million that would include federal and provincial grants, which cap the municipality's cost at the current $1.7-million.

Cole says she's also optimistic about economic development in South Huron because many of the employers in the municipality are ready to expand, and all they need are people to fill the jobs. She says South Huron is in a good position to provide those people because South Huron is close enough to London to attract those who have moved from Toronto to commute to South Huron to work or eventually move to South Huron.

"Council has committed 7.5-million taxpayers dollars and then we need to look at what is it that will be funded that would make it that we still would not be paying more than $1.7-million for recreation in South Huron," she says. “They could come from Toronto and then they go to London, but we're within driving distance for people to come to work in South Huron from London and still be within their community groups, or have enough of them then that they form their own community here.”

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