Owen Sound Mayor Ian Boddy says despite pandemic shutdowns in 2020, quite a bit still happened in the city.
Looking back at the year, Boddy says, “Business did continue, the planning department, engineering department, with site plans and things coming in didn’t really slow down. People kept working, engineers kept working so a lot of that kept going.”
Boddy says construction value in the city was about $65 million, compared to last year’s roughly $42 million. He says the last time it was this high was 2010.
37 new business licences were issued in 2020 which Boddy says is down from 2019, “But still pretty amazing.”
Some notable projects include the Heritage Grove retail & restaurant development in the same area as Winners, which will have a new hotel, restaurants and retail stores. Site prep work is underway.
According to the Mayor, 108 residential permits were issued.
He figures there are a number of reasons for interest in development, and the pandemic may have had an impact, “Certainly when we weren’t supposed to be travelling, we saw anyone in Toronto that wants out of toronto, up here buying, checking out things. So there’s a demand for residential real estate. That’s clearly showing when the demand is more than the supply and we’re seeing the price of housing going up here and all over Grey Bruce.”
In the spring of 2020, an Andpet Realty residential subdivision at 16th Avenue East — near 10th Street was approved. The residential development will include 331 units. According to a past city staff report, it will feature 10 semi-detached homes, 17 street front townhouses, 52 cluster townhouse units, 120 apartment units and a 132 unit senior’s residence and long-term care facility.
Work also continued on the Owen Sound Housing Company’s 96 unit affordable housing development called Odawa Heights on 8th Avenue East.
Major completed projects included the $9 million reconstruction of the 10th Street Bridge in the city’s downtown. A bridge naming ceremony is set for June 21st (National Indigenous People’s Day) to officially name the bridge as the Gitche Namewikwedong Bridge. The name means Great Sturgeon Bay, which was the name of Owen Sound and the bay in the Anishinaabemowin language before contact between settlers and Indigenous ancestors.
Another project that took place very recently was the 16th Street East rehabilitation project.
2020 saw the retirement of City Manager Wayne Ritchie, who was born and raised in Owen Sound and worked for the Owen Sound Public Utilities Commission for 11 years before working for the City for the following 19 years in various positions including treasurer and manager of capital projects.
He had been City manager since 2015.
Tim Simmonds was hired as the new City Manager, he has over 20 years of public sector experience. He most recently served as interim city manager in Vaughan.
The City made a bus route to Guelph a reality, (Guelph has a Via Rail station and a GO Train and Greyhound Station. Guelph Owen Sound Transportation — or GOST depart from the Owen Sound Transit Terminal and run along the Highway 6 corridor with stops in Chatsworth, Williamsford, Durham, Mount Forest, Arthur, Fergus and Elora before arriving at the final destination of Central Station in Guelph.
According to the city, the trip to Guelph on the GOST takes two hours and 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, Harrison Park had a new Tot Lot playground put in and new equipment was installed at Duncan McLellan Park. A new stone wall was built at Kelso Beach after high water levels and wave action flooded parts of the park in the summer, and due to the pandemic, the thousands of people who normally pour into Kelso Beach Park for Summerfolk, enjoyed the City’s beloved festival online this year instead. Meanwhile, the City’s Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre was repurposed into a field hospital to potentially handle patients during the pandemic.
Boddy says the City also put together a Climate Change Adaptation Plan, “That’s looking at adapting to storms, to flooding, to change of climate. Adapting to it, planning what we’re going to do.”
The City also finished its Greenwood Cemetery Master plan.
Boddy notes Grey County has a Climate Change Action Plan coming in 2021 that will suggest ways to mitigate adverse impacts of public facilities or policies on climate change.
A new Director for the Tom Thomson Art Gallery was hired and the position of Indigenous Outreach Coordinator was created.
2020 was Owen Sound’s 100th year since its incorporation as a City and a fireworks show was held on December 5th.
“We celebrate 1857 as the start of the community and 1920 as the incorporation into a city.” Boddy says, we wanted to do it in the spring but with COVID we waited and it was another chance to just do some things and try and find some happiness or some things that community can see and participate in and we’ll be needing to to more of that.”
This year also saw the creation of the ‘free’ outdoor concert series, Music at The Market, funded by the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario which saw 24 live acts put on concerts in the city’s downtown.