HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2006-11-08, Page 11News
The Huron Expositor • November 8, 2006 Page 11
Seili hopes to service industrial land, begin
affordable housing development during next term'
From Page 1
mayor's seat. The biggest thing was
to show them the dollars and cents,
that this is what we have to do to
keep taxes down."
And, he's proud that Huron East
has the lowest taxes in Huron
County with reserves built up to a
healthy level.
Seili says part of the attempt to
keep taxes down has been the focus
on economic development, including
the municipality's investment of
seed money for the proposed beef
plant in Brussels.
"We have to start thinking global-
ly even though we're a small munic-
ipality. It's not the way that small
municipalities used to do business
but big plants don't land in your
area without some municipal
investment. And, the competition is
fairly fierce," he says.
Seili says he hopes to encourage
Huron County council to place more
emphasis on economic development.
"I think that's why the county
started to roll out its plan for an
economic development officer,
because they saw the success of
ours. Nobody says that but I think
that's the reason the county started
to push it," says Seili.
Because Huron East recently
bought some industrial land in
Seaforth, Seili says he hopes to see
council service that land, at least
along the railway tracks over the
next four years.
As well, he says he wants to see
council proceed to work on a hous-
ing development behind the
Seaforth Community Hospital since
a need has been identified for
affordable seniors' condominiums
and single family duplexes.
"Most rural developments take
about 10 years from start to con-
struction so it'll be a beginning over
the next four years," he says.
Seili says council's achievements
have also included economic sup-
port of the local healthcare system
("even though that's not in our man-
date"), getting rid of deficits at the
inunicipality's three, community
centres and supporting farmers
with a tax deferral program and a
letter of support for Huron -Bruce
MP Paul Steckle's idea to stop forc-
Story idea?
Call Susan
or Jeff
at 527-0240
ing farmers to pay into unemploy-
ment insurance since they can
never collect it.
"To my knowledge, we're the only
municipality to support that," he
says.
During the next four years, Seili
hopes to see the completion of
Seaforth's water system upgrades,
the implementation of the Huron
East sign study and the
Communities in Bloom project
expanded into the rest of the munic-
ipality.
"I think Communities in Bloom
taught us that we need to do a little
bit more to dress up our communi-
ties. I think it brought pride back to
our communities," he says.
Seili says he'd also like to see
more stable funding coming to
municipalities from the province
and the federal government. And,
he says implementing programs
mandated by higher levels of gov-
ernment is one of the biggest com-
ing challenges.
"I worry about all government
programs because there is only one
taxpayer," he says.
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