Wilmot will focus on employment lands, trails and remaining debt-free: mayor

In the next couple of weeks, Wilmot Mayor Les Armstrong expects to see the start of asubmission to develop 56 hectares of employment lands in the township.

The land is strategically located along Highway 7 / 8 near New Hamburg, less than 30 minutes by truck to Hwy. 401.

"We can get that started," Armstrong said in an interview with CBC Newsafter winning the municipal election on Monday.

He has other plans in mind for where he wants to see the township build and grow in the coming four years.

He wants to continue to upgrade aging infrastructure before it becomes a problem.

The township has recently completed two master plans: one for recreational buildings and one for arts and culture both ofwhich will come before council next month.

The township also has a master plan for its recreational trails, which is also done.

Armstrong noted that the township has had150 acres of land donated for trails and $1 million in financial donations from the Schout family.

Staying in the black

Wilmot township is financially in the black and Armstrong would like to keep it that way, but he admits thatmight be hard.

"I've always been realistic to the fact that we probably can't maintain the debt free forever, because there will be times that we'll come to the point where we will need to maybe go into debt," he said.

"But to go into debt just for the sake of going into debt was something that we certainly didn't want to do."

He said staying debt-free may be difficult because they're already seeing less money from the provincial government and he's worried more cuts are on the way.

He saidhe understands cuts need to happen, but smaller municipalities depend on funding from upper tier governments.

And while some people have suggested to him that the township should have borrowed money while it was cheap to do so, Armstrong maintains that was not seen as a viable option.

He saidthey wanted to remain debt free as long as possible and stick to a 10-year capital plans, which gave council and staff a good idea of how much money they had and how much they needed to spend.

'Every idea costs money'

As mayor, Armstrong is also a regional councillor and said he needs to keep his township's top concerns on the minds of the other regionalcouncillors.

For example, there is the issue of public transit. Currently a bus runs between Kitchener and New Hamburg, and Armstrong would like to see the number of trips increased and the route expanded.

He also wants to see emergency services, like police and EMS, expanded.

"Especially in the rural areas, the response times are fairly long by comparison," he said. "I understand why that is because of the distance travelled but to help alleviate that some, we do need more equipment."

Armstrong said there is talk of improving police presence in Wilmot, which would help. But he says more can be done.

"We need help from the government to try and help us to do that and they offloading at the hospitals is a problem," Armstrong said.

"Every idea costs money, so we have to be wise to what the costs are and where the money's going to come from."