A pilot project will take a closer at Wallaceburg’s Municipal buildings and parks.
West Kent Councillor Melissa Harrigan entered a successful motion to kick start the initiative at Monday night’s, December 9, Chatham-Kent Council meeting.
Harrigan’s motion directed staff to work on the divestment/rationalization decision support matrix for one asset area at a time, working within their existing resources.
“And that staff begin this work with a focused pilot, in the asset category of parks and buildings, specifically in the community of Wallaceburg, and to return to council with a report on the initiative some time within the 2020 calendar year, for discussion and lessons learned on the process,” Harrigan said in her motion.
Harrigan’s motion also directed staff to maintain the approved Council direction regarding asset divestment in the interim.
Harrigan’s motion on Monday stemmed from a previous motion she had made earlier in the year.
The previous motion sparked a report from staff, which recommended that administration proceed with a request for proposal (RFP) to outsource the works required for the Rationalization/Divestment of Municipal Assets.
Staff said in the report it would cost approximately $1.4-million to look at the bridges, roads and parks/buildings across the entire Municipality.
Harrigan said focusing on Wallaceburg first with this pilot project would coincide with a recent motion by Wallaceburg Councillor Aaron Hall about looking into a Community Hub for Wallaceburg.
Hall thanked Harrigan on social media for bringing the motion forward on Monday night.
“This will be some important work in our community and provide us with some key information,” Hall said on social media.
“Not only related to the Community Hub idea, but (it) will be valuable information overall. I’m looking forward to working with the community on this as we move into 2020.”
Hall added that he and Councillor Carmen McGregor met with Municipal staff on Monday afternoon about the Community Hub concept.
“We discussed some ideas about the Community Hub concept in Wallaceburg, talked about some previous lessons learned when exploring this idea in C-K and came away with some good ideas to move forward with,” Hall said.
“We’re planning to hold a public engagement session in the middle of March, 2020.”
Anyone with ideas about the Community Hub idea can email McGregor or Hall at carmen.mcgregor@chatham-kent.ca or aaron.hall@chatham-kent.ca.
