Clinton News Record, 2016-05-04, Page 22 News Record • Wednesday, May 4, 2016
New councillor voted in for Central Huron
Contributed photo
Adam Robinson
Adam Robinson is elected
out of four candidates
Justine Alkema
Clinton News Record
The vacant seat around Cen-
tral Huron's council table has
been filled. That seat was left
empty by Genny Smith who
resigned from the position in
February. Mayor Ginn noted
that Smith had two young chil-
dren and was too busy to con-
tinue working with council. The
new councillor is Adam Robin-
son who gave a short speech on
Apri125's council meeting along
with three other applicants.
Mayor Ginn said they had
three options to find a new
councillor; theycouldholdabi-
election, appoint, or ask for
applications, of which they
chose the latter, which is less
costly than the first
At the meeting, each candi-
date gave a speech that was a
few minutes long. Names were
pulled out of a hat to determine
the order of the speeches.
The first to go was Patrick
Nagle. Nagle's speech focused
on two things. First, he talked
about how he ran for council in
the last election, and was short
byonly44votes.
"People have spoken," said
Nagle. "Those who voted for
you voted forme"
Nagle's second point of
emphasis was that he wants to
reconnect with the rate payers.
He talked about the low voter
tum -out at the last election and
how people feel disconnected
and uniformed. He wants to
engage people again.
The second candidate was
Michael Russo. Russo is the co-
chair of the Clinton and Central
Huron BIA. He talked about
this fact and that he hadworked
with all of the councillors pre-
sent in one form or another
whether that be in a meeting,
workshop, on a committee or a
council. He discussed his per-
sonal attributes of being a team
player and having a critical
mind.
The third candidate was Tim
Collyer. Collyer used to be a
councillor in Central Huron's
East Ward from 2003-2010, and
he said that his past experience
on council is an asset for him.
"I'm am keenly aware of a
whole host of issues that coun-
cil has to deal with," said
Collyer.
Collyer also noted that he has
been a resident of Central
Huron for 36 years, is retired
and therefore has more time for
council activities, and has rele-
vant employment experience
as he worked for 24 years with
the County of Huron in finan-
cial administration and other
roles.
The last candidate to speak
was Adam Robinson, who ran
for office previously in 2014.
Robinson, who is significantly
younger than the other appli-
cants, said this was an advan-
tage for him. This could be used
to connect with people from his
generation and inspire people
his age which could improve
voter turnout. Other factors he
discussed are that his wife is a
small business owner, so he has
a foot in the private sector, and
that he has flexible employ-
ment He said he's also excited
just to learn more about the
decision making processes of
council.
Councillor Westerhout asked
the candidates what they
thought was the most impor-
tant issue facing Central Huron,
and all four candidates men-
tioned economic development
Nagle also brought up the need
for community engagement, as
he mentioned in his speech.
Russo said functionality in the
way they make events is impor-
tant. Collyer said there are
many issues and it will be a
busy two and ahalfyears for the
councillor elected, and Robin-
son mentioned that they need a
strong strategic plan.
In order to elect a person,
four out of the seven councillors
had to vote for the same person.
The first round of voting
revealed three votes for Russo,
three votes for Robinson, and
one vote for Collyer. This insti-
gated another round of voting
just between Russo and Robin-
son, in which Robinson
received four votes, and Russo
received three.
Robinson was then sworn
into office, and the meeting
concluded.
Clinton skate park to begin fundraising shortly
Justine Alkema
Clinton News Record
The new Clinton skate park
is in the making. A public
unveiling of the project will
take place on Tuesday, May 17
in the Libro Community Hall
at the YMCA in Clinton at 7
p.m. The new plans for the
design of the park will be
revealed as well as more infor-
mation about the park,
upcoming fundraisers, and
more. There will potentially be
a draw for a scooter as well.
The committee, which
consists of community
members as well as Deputy
Mayor David Jewitt and new
councilor Adam Robinson,
has been meeting once or
twice a month since the pro-
ject was initiated last year.
The old skate park was
taken down due to safety con-
cerns regarding the equip-
ment, and the municipality
wasn't planning on replacing
the park. This caused a group
of parents to band together
and try to start anew one.
City council has decided
to give $30,000 towards the
cause, however that still puts
the group far below their
fundraising goal of $180,000
- $200,000. Also, that
amount is just for the skate
park. After that is completed,
the group's long-term goal is
to revamp the entire park,
not just the skate area. They
are hoping for in-kind dona-
tions from businesses as
well, for example for hard-
ware and concrete. They are
also applying for some
grants to raise money that
way.
"We really need commu-
nity involvement for this,"
said committee member
Karen Ott. "I think that peo-
ple feel there's already a
committee formed, so
there's no need for more
help, but really the commit-
tee's quite small and weary
after a year."
The park will be built on
the existing pad. The com-
mittee consulted local skat-
ers about what their hopes
for the park would be, and
they hired a skate park com-
pany to design the new
layout.
It is hard to say when the
construction will begin, as
that entirely depends on
how fundraising goes. Ott
said they would love to see
construction starting next
year, but that is purely theo-
retical at this point.
"Hopefully as people get
informed about the park,
they will come out to the
meeting, especially the
youth. They are the ones
who will be using the park,"
said Ott. "They need to know
how much we need them':
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