By Anne Finlay-Stewart

Their inaugural meeting was full of flags and oaths, music and gratitude.

Tonight, the new Owen Sound City Council got down to business.

First, they opened the mail - "Correspondence Received for which Direction of Council is Required"

• A copy of a letter of response from the Minister of Natural Resources to MPP Bill Walker about commercial fishing activities was quickly "received". That means noone wanted to talk about it.
• There was another letter from Mr. Walker, offering a letter of support for any application the city might want to make for a new grant "to provide funds to municipalities to partner with community groups to improve transportation for seniors, persons living with disabilities, youth and others". According to city staff there is no interest and this grant is "not a good fit" for this community. For those of you who find this surprising, take some consolation in the county's plan to pursue this funding.
• We are going to take up the province's offer to apply for a grant to help us create a plan for becoming an "age-friendly community" though.
• Council had their first opportunity to balance their fiscal responsibility with their downtown business friendliness with a letter from a local merchant asking for free parking downtown for the last nine days before Christmas. This year's parking budget is in a deficit position, and the DIA has already negotiated year-round free Saturday parking, so that letter was also "received" with no action.

The "Consent Agenda" lived up to its name and was swiftly approved.

Reports inspired slightly more discussion.

• Boards and committees were jiggled a little – public representatives will soon outnumber the politicians on the Owen Sound and North Grey Union Public Library Board to bring them into compliance with the Public Libraries Act, and the Family Physician Recruitment Committee will be dissolved, with thanks to the chair Michelle Mannerow for its great success.
• The council gave Mayor Ian Boddy their unanimous support and utmost confidence – to prepare a seating plan for future council meetings. Savour that moment Your Honour.
• Director of Financial Services Wayne Ritchie delivered lots of "good news/bad news" messages. The city will receive about $250,000 from the province for public transit – our share of the 2% gas tax charged at the pump. But that is about $23,000 less than last year. $769,000 from the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund sounds good – unless you compare it to the $961,000 we got last year.
• The city will be receiving $216, 325 from the province in each of the next three years for capital infrastructure projects, and a share of the Grey County savings as the Ontario government continues to upload services previously downloaded to the counties and municipalities in the Harris years.
• Director of Operations Ken Becking brought good news too – the conversion of our streetlights to LEDs is proceeding apace – with a reduction in our energy and maintenance costs of almost 75%. The savings will be applied to the debenture taken out for the up-front costs until the project breaks even in an estimated four years.
• Director of Community Services Pam Coulter introduced the idea of altering zoning definitions to allow for the location of Medical Marihuana (yes, that is how Health Canada spells it) Production Facilities within Owen Sound. Such facilities have received approvals in Hanover and Meaford, and meet federal, provincial and Owen Sound Official Plan Standards. Stand by for public meetings in February.
• Lutheran Social Services, who brought us St. Francis Place and Corbett Place, have plans to build 12 housing units with gardens on the site of the empty Alpha Street Medical Centre. Another good news project.
• Rogers is bringing its Hometown Hockey Tour to Owen Sound January 2-4, complete with Ron McLean, a national NHL broadcast from Owen Sound, and lots of family hockey fun in the south parking lot at the Bayshore. The city will run shuttles to the Attack game from the Public Health parking lot and National Grocers.

Some Highlights of Committee Reports

• A sign by-law prohibiting new electronic message display signs downtown was sent back to the committee by council.
• Staff have recommended any changes to bus routes and stops be held off until after snow season.
• Ryerson Park has a new design, thanks to public input, that will preserve open space and the toboganning hill, renew the playground and make the whole park fully accessible. No water fountain though – apparently it can't be done safely.
• The ash borer is coming, and removing infected trees from public land is going to cost us – big.
• The province got in ahead of our local health unit with a smoking ban in parks, sports fields and playgrounds.

Three of the new councillors and the deputy mayor got in some thoughts about smoothing out procedures and then Mayor Boddy got in the last words.

He wished every Owen Sounder a merry Christmas and happy holidays, and encouraged us all to make a New Year's resolution to add one project to our lives to make our neighbourhood and our city a better place.

Anne Finlay-Stewart is Community Editor of Owensoundhub.org. She can be reached at [email protected].