For Arran-Elderslie Mayor Steve Hammell, the past year has seen some challenges and some celebrations.
“We celebrated birth 25 year of being a municipality of Paisley, Chesley and Tara (Arran-Elderslie) as well as having the Paisley 150 celebration this summer,” says Hammell in an interview with Bayshore Broadcasting News.
He adds, “A great year of celebrating. We also celebrated a rejuvenation of the Paisley Arena and Community Centre and having the Paisley Library, the Bruce County Library branch located in that building now, making it a community hub was a highlight.”
Hammell says they also approved a new Paisley Fire Hall and public works combination at the south end of Paisley, adding, “It’s been a long time coming, having a fire hall that’s been inadequate for years in Paisley but finally great news ahead, Domm Construction has been awarded the tender for the fire hall and we expect the fire hall to be completed by the end of 2025. Very excited of that large project in Arran-Elderslie. The largest project to date.”
Meanwhile, every community faces challenges and Hammell highlighted a few of those.
“The challenge is our bridge mater plan that we’re continuing to work on and we’ll see it again this winter. Knowing that it’s very expensive to maintain our 60 plus bridges and the challenges of that has us concerned, but we’ll try our best to keep as many of them going as possible.”
He adds, “We’re also very concerned about our Chesley Hospital. We’ve got a positive update from South Bruce Grey Health Centre in regard to more staff, however we’re going to keep pressing and keep advocating to get back to our 24/7 service especially noting we’d like to get weekend service for our residents at our Chesley emergency department as soon as possible.”
Looking ahead, he notes in 2025, it’s Chesley’s 145th anniversary. “They have a kickoff event on New Year’s Eve, and then it will all come to a culmination in August with a big celebration of Chesley’s 145 years.”
Also ahead in 2025, Hammell says the municipality has hired experts to look at the electoral ward system versus the at-large system. Currently, Arran-Elderslie has five wards.
Hammell says that process will involve the community, noting, “There will be public meetings and there will be lots of opportunity for public input.” He expects more information to come to council on the ward versus at-large system in January.