Council decides on in-house planning and tourism boost

During Monday night’s council session at the Civic Centre the Municipality has decided to scrap the use of a third party planning committee and is instead opting to conduct future planning with municipal staff.  Storey Samways Planning Limited, Chatham-Kent’s planning firm, noted that their employees are fed up with the lack of trust in recent years.

Tom Storey said “We’re done,” in regards to the contract with the Municipality, making the debate amongst the councillors straightforward and trouble-free. The contract with the firm will last until May of 2016.

Removing of the third-party element in municipal planning is expected to save $178,000 in the first year. The annual savings are fixed at $141,000 by the fourth year of the new plan. Bruce McAllister, the director of planning for the municipality said that there are currently two positions that need to be filled including a junior planner and administrative assistant.

In addition to these money saving measures the municipality will also be brandishing our rich African-American history and spectacular local fishing with the new tourism plan passed by council.

BrainTrust, a sector consultant group, feels Chatham-Kent is able to market these attributes to tourists.

Richard Innes a representative of BrainTrust has said that local businesses need to have a willingness to change. The current situation is that many businesses shutdown on Sundays or close early on Saturdays which is of little help to potential tourists. Innes went on to say that Chatham-Kent has a more diverse set of attractions but these need to be further developed before they will be marketable as tourist attractions.

Other notable resolution

- A resolution was passed regarding Chatham-Kent’s responsible animal ownership bylaw; Councillor Doug Sulman proposed the successful amendment limiting the number of cats in a household to five from the previous ten.