Goderich Signal Star, 2017-01-11, Page 3Central Huron takes a wait-and-
see approach to 2017 while Huron
prepares to tackle high speed Internet
Darryl Coote
Editor
Following a challenging
though positive year for Cen-
tral Huron, its mayor, Jim
Ginn, expects 2017 to be used
to assess what options the
town has in the years ahead.
"2017 will be probably a
stand -pat year," Ginn said fol-
lowing the regular county
council meeting held on Jan.
4.
For 2016, financially, Cen-
tral Huron met all of its obli-
gations, he said, and council
has already dealt with the
"worst part of our budgets,"
specifically pricing in polic-
ing costs. He added that last
year also saw the ending of
cuts to Ontario Municipal
Partnership Fund grants,
which offer lower -tier govern-
ments stable funding.
"I think going forward it
will be a little easier," he said.
"Our grants for infrastructure
are increasing and will
increase in the next few
years."
, He said that when they fin-
ish paying off the debt for the
solar panels that, too, will free
up cash.
"I think the toughest budg-
ets are behind us. Now, so
going forward, we hope to be
able to either reduce taxes or
do more paving projects and
provide more services to resi-
dents," he said.
Whether Central Huron
reduces taxes or.gaves streets
will be a decision needed to
be made by council, he said.
This new year, he said, will
be an- exciting one as the
municipality is planning a big
celebration to usher in Cana-
da's 150th anniversary on the
weekend following July 1.
Also, there are projects, he
said, to rejuvenate Clinton's
downtown park.
think the toughest
budgets are behind
us. Now, • so going
forward, we hope to
be able to either
reduce taxes or do
more paving projects
and provide more
services to residents.
— Jim Ginn, Central Huron
mayor and Huron County
warden
"Big plans for the renova-
tion of the park in downtown
Clinton with a splash pad,
skateboarding park and pavil-
ion put up. So we look for-
ward to doing some improve-
ments to the main street.
And, also, we're hoping to get
out to the rural areas as well,
the hamlets, and do some
improvements there, too," he
said.
Ginn said he doesn't expect
too many challenges in 2017,
though he hopes for a light
winter so their snow -removal
budget is kept at a minimum.
As warden of Huron
County, Ginn said he is look-
ing to bring high speed inter -
net to the region, which he
stated as one of his objectives
when he became warden late
last year.
"Internet access is the big
one for me. I think it's abso-
lutely critical that weget high
speed internet to all our resi-
dents so we'll be working
hard on that one. That has got
to be my number one hope
that we succeed with," he
said.
Darryl Coote/Editor
Central Huron mayor and Huron
County warden Jim Ginn.
He "hopes" council makes
the decisions necessary in
2017 to put together a con-
crete plan for bringing inter -
net cables to Huron.
He added that it will still be
years before residents have
access to high speed internet.
"Getting the cable in the
ground is another story, but
we need a plan on how we're
going to move forward with it.
We need to get the funding in
place and then we'll have to
go out and hire companies to
install [the cables]," he said.
Similar to installing hydro
or natural gas, high speed
internet is a utility that is dif-
ficult to implement in rural
communities, but it needs to
be done.
"We need to get it there in a
five-year time span and I
think it's essentially economi-
cally as well if we're going to
attract small businesses. And
I said before, we have a won-
derful lifestyle here ... that
people could come here and
set up home business if we
had those internet connec-
tions," he said.
Wednesday, January 11, 2017 • Signal Star 3
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