Questions abound at Thurlow budget meeting

Councillor Paul Carr addresses his constituents at a meeting Wednesday night. Image by Mike Fleming

By Mike Fleming

BELLEVILLE – It didn’t take long for the people in attendance at Wednesday’s budget meeting at the Thurlow Community Centre to make their concerns known.

Ward Two councillors Paul Carr and Jackie Denyes hosted a meeting at the Gerry Masterson Thurlow Community Centre Wednesday night at 6:30. The meeting was supposed to include a presentation on what had happened with the 2017 Belleville budget; outline the proposals for the 2018 capital budget; and end with a question and answer period. It wasn’t that long into the presentation about the 2017 budget however, that Thurlow residents were already asking questions. 

“Why aren’t the residential roads being taken care of?,” one resident asked about road maintenance.

And that was just one of the concerns raised. 

Carr and Denyes fielded questions throughout the night, ranging on topics from infrastructure, to the new recycling centre at the Thurlow dump, to the potential transit expansion into Thurlow.

Another resident voiced concerns for students living in Thurlow.

“We’ve got grown kids who need that bus,” he said, citing a pilot project route run by Belleville into the Thurlow Ward.

The topic of the downtown restoration project really got the discussion going.

While some residents seemed to view the restoration as a positive step, many in attendance voiced multiple concerns. These concerns ranged from the overall cost of the project, to lack of adequate parking in the downtown area, to what council was doing to bring businesses back to the downtown area.

One resident even questioned the use of brick in the new roads.

“This is Canada, why are we trying so hard to look like Europe,” he said, while also expressing concern on damages snowploughs would do in the winter.

The councillors answered all the questions and concerns. The phrase “that’s something we can take to council” or some variant was a common response throughout the night.

The councillors and residents engaged in the Q & A session for nearly all of the scheduled two hours and the councillors continued to address concerns in one-on-one conversations after the meeting had ended.

Belleville city council will meet on the budget on Nov. 28 and Nov. 29 at City Hall.