Budget Debate at Woodstock City Hall Tonight

Thursday, 12 December 2024 05:57

Woodstock City Council will have to go over a few motions before approving the 2025 Capital Budget tonight.

UPDATE: Woodstock City Council has passed the Capital Budget and turned down the Lions Pool and Downtown Streetscape motions in the process.

We will have a full article on our website this afternoon.

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WOODSTOCK - It's going to be an interesting Woodstock City Council meeting.

Council is set to approve the Capital Budget for 2025 tonight but a couple of motions will be brought forward that will stir things up.

Councillor Deb Tait will introduce a motion to spend close to $2 million to renovate Lions Pool instead of demolishing it. Council voted in favour of decommissioning Lions Pool in July 2023, with the intention of building a new outdoor pool at Cowan Fields to replace it. Those plans were put on hold in the spring of 2024 due to the impact it would have on future debt.

A local group put together a petition to save the pool on Change.org. It received about 450 signatures before it was moved to a Google Doc form so it could be presented to City Council this past summer.

Councillor Mark Schadenburg is also bringing forward a motion tonight. He's asking his fellow councillors to remove the Downtown Revitalization project from the 2025 Capital Budget and the 2026-2029 Capital Forecast.

In an interview with Heart FM earlier this week, Mayor Jerry Acchione said this motion would put a complete stop to the project, aside from the phase 1 work that's already been approved to begin in spring 2025.

"We've already got one that's awarded, so we'll have one section done in April-ish of next year. If this motion passes, that would be it. There would be no future funding, so setting money aside, nothing."

Tonight's meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. and you can find the full agenda online here. You can stop by Council Chambers at City Hall to watch it in person or livestream it on the City of Woodstock YouTube page.