October 2017
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Catching up with the mayor By Ellen Cohen As Severn’s elected officials enter the last year of their 4-year term, they and all staff begin the work required to prepare Budget 2018. As usual, budget preparations include a review and assessment of projects that were begun, completed or postponed during the year. Staff and council will also review long-term plans, look at changing needs and estimate potential cost increases. In varying degrees, all township departments, the mayor and council are involved in the budget process. To review some of the township projects for our readers, The Villager recently spoke to Mayor Mike Burkett about the progress of several 2017 projects laid out in the 2017 budget. DIVISION ROAD RE-PAVING Road work represents the township’s largest expense and, according to township staff and council, is always top of mind with residents. Division Road was a major road work project that took years to plan and complete. In fact, the mayor said that at one point Simcoe County was interested in helping with some of the engineering work but in the end, to work with them would have meant the project would have ballooned to a $30 million cost. The township switched gears and later planned for it to be a $7 million project, but in the end, is happy to report this huge job came in at only $2 million. Mike says the road is now finished and in beautiful condition, including a wider portion of the road running from Burnside Line to Telford Line allowing room for cyclists. “This road should last 15-20 years but we never stop planning for work on all of our roads. Work has already begun on Cambrian from Burnside to Nichols and we are planning for work on other roads that
have been neglected. We always have to be mindful not to let roads deteriorate to the point where they become prohibitively expensive to fix,” he said. WESTSHORE RECREATION FACILITY The recreation facility in the Westshore neighbourhood of Severn is another story entirely. Almost a year ago, the community believed that shovels would soon be going in the ground. In fact, in the December 2016 issue of The Villager, we reported “After 6 years of pre-building work such as acquiring the site, getting public input, deciding on what the building would include, and hiring the architect, Ward 4 residents can look forward to the shovels going in the ground in the spring of 2017.” In this same issue, we also published a floor plan of the proposed building. Well, the best laid plans can often go astray. The mayor said it’s not because the township has not been on top of the project, or because the township doesn’t have the funds to move the project forward.
Mayor Mike Burkett
The delay was caused because of what the mayor describes as avoidable: during the stage when the architect was involved, the company underestimated the soil base required to house a building the size it was planned to be. Township staff actually identified the problem and changes had to be made. These changes added some cost to the facility, but mostly the cost has been in lost time. “It may seem like a small matter to resolve, but it is a very important issue. For example, not only does the east side of the township not have sufficient recreation facilities, it does not have an evacuation centre. This new recreation facility is planned to double as this type of centre. That means including a kitchen, showers and sufficient washroom facilities. A building with these features needs to be completely sound and we want to be very sure we’re making the right decisions for the future. It’s a very important building.” Mike said. Continued on page 13
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