Non-profits benefit from town’s financial support
“We sent out application forms to non-profits so we could budget accordingly,” said Town Treasurer and Director of Finance, Jennifer Crabbe, during her financial reports presentation to Woodstock Town Council. “I’m happy to say that we came in right on budget for the projects.”
This year, the town will issue $99,093.05 in community grants to local non-profits. The organizations approved for funding are the Volunteer Family Services, Valley Food Bank, Northampton Recreation Centre, Sanctuary House, Carleton County Historical Society, Creek Village and Fine Arts Cooperative Ltd., Woodstock Elks Club, Community Industries Employment Vocational Association (CIEVA), River Valley Gymnastics, Woodstock Boxing Club, and Richmond Corner Area Recreational Co-op Ltd.
Crabbe said they all were great projects, a sentiment Mayor Trina Jones shared.
Communities In Bloom
Councillor Christa McCartney, on behalf of the Community Beautification Committee, told council that this year, the town’s Communities in Bloom will use the theme “Therapeutic Gardens” and the colour yellow. They are encouraging businesses and residents throughout the Woodstock municipality to add yellow to their windows and floral displays.
In 2024, Woodstock joined the National Communities in Bloom program in Canada. Councillor McCartney recounted hosting some international judges who came to evaluate the community’s appearance, environmental action, heritage conservation, plants and floral displays.
Mayor Trina Jones, McCartney and some other councillors, including Julie Calhoun-Williams and Councillor Norm Brown, spent the day showing them around the area, including a boat tour captained by Brown.
In the end, Woodstock received a Bloom rating of 4 out of 5. The judges also provided extensive feedback and suggestions on how the town could improve.
Since then, the committee has been encouraging the community to get involved in beautification and aiming for the Town to tackle a project a year. Last year, they held a business-in-bloom initiative and a residents’ best garden award. They held two ceremonies for the winners. McCartney spoke of how wonderful it was to see that even the smallest spaces could be made beautiful, noting that one of the winners was from Riverside Court and had only a balcony to work with.
“It’s nice to see people nominating their neighbour and recognizing people who do a fantastic job,” McCartney enthused.
Last year, the Towns project involved trimming the rose bush hedge along Connell Park. This year, she’s hoping for something artistic.
She suggested that the town look into the feasibility of adding a couple of flowering art sculptures to Town property. They would be metal-welded sculptures with soil inside where you could plant flowers. She also suggested adding lights for winter to add interest year-round.
For potential locations, she suggested the little park along Broadway, overlooking the water, and the triangle of land where Elm Street, Main Street and Grover connect.
Council agreed to look into the project further. Councillor Calhoun-Williams also suggested that they could ask the community for submissions about what the sculptures should look like via their Facebook page.
Business Improvement Area
Non-residential owners in downtown Woodstock’s Business Improvement Area (BIA) who have received their property assessments may have noticed something missing. This year, they weren’t charged a BIA levy.
The independently run nonprofit organization, Woodstock Business Improvement Corporation Inc., helps promote Commercial businesses in Downtown Woodstock. Businesses in the area were expected to be levied 20 cents per $100 of assessed property value this year. That money helps promote initiatives in the area, such as their very popular downtown dollars promotion and other efforts that support the downtown business community.
Current regulations from the Department of Environment and Local Government (ELG) require the BIA to pass a new bylaw each year to continue collecting levies and applying for other forms of funding.
Part of that process requires notifying the public in print, not just digitally. Due to an error with the publication, the River Valley Sun, the notification was published online but was omitted from the print edition. As a result, the bylaw was nullified. The River Valley Sun apologized to the mayor and CAO for the error and revised its advertising request procedures to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
Because the BIA has been incorporated, it still exists as a corporation, but no longer has access to its usual sources of funding.
“Obviously, this was an unfortunate mistake,” said Mayor Trina Jones.
During the Jan. 27 Woodstock Town Council meeting, CAO Allan Walker shared that, while nothing has been formalized, the Department of Environment and Local Government said it intends to provide a grant to the town, which the town can then transfer to the BIA to help with funding while they go through the process of being reinstated. The town is looking at whether it can also help top up that funding.
The town has begun the process to reinstate funding to the Woodstock BIA.
Mayor Remuneration Bylaw
Council passed the second reading of Bylaw 602.01 during Woodstock’s Town Council meeting on Jan. 27. While stipends for council members and the deputy would remain at their current rates, the bylaw would change the compensation for the next Mayor.
Currently, the Mayor receives a $45,000 stipend. If the bylaw passes its third reading, the next mayor’s compensation will be a stipend of $32,000 a year, RRSP match contribution of up to $2,000 a year after one year of service and council-approved leadership and professional development training of up to $1,000 a year, if the Mayor is operating on a part-time basis. If the Mayor works full-time, they would receive a stipend of $50,000, an RRSP match of up to $4,000, approved leadership training of up to $2,000, and, if they maintain oversight of the municipal police, an annual stipend of $8,000.
One member of the public wrote to the council regarding the proposed by-law, which CAO Allan Walker summarized. It noted that a written error in the document had reduced the Deputy Mayor’s current annual stipend from $22,500 to $22,000. Walker noted that the mistake has been corrected. The letter also suggested that the police chief should report directly to the council rather than to the mayor.
Mayor Trina Jones explained that while she may direct the police department day to day, the council remains the authority, is informed regularly, and makes all major decisions.
Councillor Julie Calhoun-Williams explained that if the next mayor is full-time, there would be a benefit to having them oversee the municipal police, as they would be available Monday through Friday.
“That’s why the police department can go to them. If they had to wait for council, we would have to do an official meeting,” Calhoun-Williams said. “Things would stall, stall, stall, all the time. So I think that’s an advantage just for awareness and consideration.”
Nuisance byaws
“This is a big one, I think, for everyone, and we want to get it right. I think there are lots of best practices out there,” said Mayor Trina Jones. “We have 15 bylaws on our table that we’re looking at to try and pull the best of. I hope at the end of the day we have the best in the province.”
There has been an increase in noise-related complaints within the Woodstock municipality. The council discussed how outdated, unclear bylaws have complicated dealing with those complaints. Since noise can be subjective, what amount of noise is considered reasonable to one person might be an irritant to another.
Lately, the town has been looking into how other municipalities regulate and measure noise to better understand how they could fairly apply regulations here, while trying to balance businesses’ needs for productivity with residents’ comfort.
They will be looking at when and how to measure sound, the times of day and noise frequency, and how that is affecting the people around them. They want to consider when to issue exemptions, such as during special events, and how best to enforce the rules.
“We don’t want to over-regulate, but we also want to empower our officers to be able to address issues he currently struggles to address and probably could and should address,” explained Mayor Jones.
The aim is to make a bylaw that sets out the standards in a way that is clear to everyone and enforceable by the bylaw officer when necessary. The mayor noted that it is not right now.
Mayor Jones mentioned one complaint that has stood out to her came in before Christmas.
“The individual was extremely impacted by a change in her environment in a house that her family lived in, forever. ” Now we’re dealing with this new noise, and it’s really destructive, and we don’t have any mechanism to deal with it,” said Mayor Jones. “It’s hard to just go back and say we can’t do anything about this. That’s not what people want to hear.”
Town staff have been instructed by council to work on drafting a new noise bylaw. This draft will be reviewed by the town’s lawyer before being presented to the Development and Bylaw Committee for further review. Once they are satisfied, it will be brought to the town council for consideration of first reading and public review.
#BeMoreLikeEvan
“He died doing what he loved, but way too soon,” read Councillor Julie Calhoun-Williams at the Jan. 27 Woodstock Council meeting.
Evan Graham of Hartford died on July 21, 2020, at the age of 14. His family honours his life every year on his birthday through their #BeMoreLikeEvan campaign. They sent a letter to Woodstock Town Council asking people to perform random acts of kindness and share them on social media using the campaign hashtag.
“He was a young man who enjoyed the little things in life. He appreciated everything he had and the people who loved him,” read Calhoun-Williams, “He was kind, caring and compassionate. He dreamed big, smiled big, laughed often, helped others, worked hard, and played harder.”
The 6th annual campaign was on Sunday, Feb. 1.
