Posted on Friday, October 5, 2018 at 3:00 p.m.
Mayoral candidates debate business and heritage questions for Russell
The
three candidates seeing to be mayor of Russell Township after October
22 wrestled with questions about business development and heritage
protection during the first all-candidates public session last night.
The
October 4 event held at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic High School in
Russell was set up more as a meet-the-candidates political social with
all three mayoral candidates and the eight candidates seeing one of the
four councillor positions for the township each getting a few minutes on
stage to state their campaign platforms and then spending the rest of
the evening meeting with one-on-one with any
of the more than 130 residents gathered in the school cafetorium.
The
three mayoral candidates, incumbent Pierre Leroux (seated left in
photo), Shawn McNally, and Charles Armstrong had two separate questions
to answer in addition to their campaign introductions. The questions
concerned what kind of business development plan could they offer the
Village of Russell to help boost its economic profile and how would they
balance preservation of the village’s heritage
residential features with increasing traffic demands.
Armstrong
noted that any major future business growth for the township as a whole
will hinge on the 417 Industrial Park near Vars. He argued
that the Village of Russell needs its own advisory committee for future
economic planning.
“We need a business development committee for each of the (four) villages,” Armstrong said, “if not for the whole municipality.”
“There’s
very little commercial zoning still available in the Village of
Russell,” said McNally. “It’s a question of supply and demand, with
little supply.”
He
noted that his business development focus for the village would be to
find ways to foster more retail and professional service investment
into Russell.
Leroux
argued that his council along with previous councils have prepared a
economic strategy for the whole municipality along with a heritage
protection plan and reports on traffic studies and other concerns.
“We’ve
done our studies,” he said. “We know where we’re going. It’s going
forward, it’s going the right way, and we need to continue doing so.”
The
next full candidates debates take place October 9 and 10 at the Embrun
Community Centre. The October 9 session will be in French while the
October 10 session is in English.