A few Morden residents took advantage of the opportunity to sit down with the mayor and members of council last week to chat about the issues and concerns of the day.
It was Meet the Mayor and Council time over the noon hour last Tuesday at the Suncatch Plaza, and the hope is that residents will make use of the opportunity to ask questions and share their views.
“We see a lot of chatter on Facebook. It would be nice if people would come out and meet with council and share their concerns one-on-one,” said Mayor Nancy Penner.
The mayor and council held similar meet and greets last summer in the Suncatch and then continued through the winter indoors at the Morden Activity Centre. This summer they thought they’d try over the noon hour when people could perhaps slip away more easily from work for a chat.
“We thought having it over the lunch hour we might have had more people show up,” said Penner. “It’s always interesting to hear the different ideas and comments from people.”
An issue that appears to be top of mind for people right now is the further delay of the city’s wastewater treatment project.
Penner said people have wondered if council has explored all of the possible options, but she stressed they also may not be aware of the restrictions faced by the city. For example, council is restricted in terms of how much they can borrow for a project, and there are many complicating factors such as environmental approval.
“Wastewater has definitely created some discussion. Council is dealing with this on a day-to-day ongoing basis,” the mayor said. “We dearly hope we can find some resolution to our ongoing issues.
“There is big-time frustration and questions about why the costs are going up and why we didn’t go with the previous plan several years ago,” she said. “At the end of the day, we want to make sure we have the best solution for the community that can carry us forward.”
Otherwise, Penner said people are also asking about such things as road conditions and sidewalks, and there are also questions about flood mitigation and concerns that arose around the amount of homes that had water in their basements recently as a result of heavy rain.
“We are into more severe storms. We’re seeing it everywhere … so we see more heavy rainfalls, and we see the impact of it,” she said. “One rainfall event coming significantly over a short period of time overloads our system. Winkler had the same impact … we do the best that we can.”
The next Suncatch get-together with council is Tuesday, July 30 over the noon hour, followed by another one Aug. 6.
“We want to try to make ourselves available,” Penner said.
