Downtown Woodstock BIA Calls on Oxford County Council for Help

Thursday, 13 May 2021 05:38

Oxford County Council heard a delegation from the Downtown Woodstock BIA on Wednesday regarding the current state of the downtown core.

WOODSTOCK - The Downtown Woodstock BIA made a presentation to Oxford County Council on Wednesday regarding safety in the deteriorating downtown core.

BIA Manager Virginia Armstrong explains why she made this delegation.

"We reached out to Oxford County Council for their support to create a safe and sustainable downtown. We feel we need support from every level of Government and everyone in our community must come together to make this community safe for everyone.

She says the state of the downtown has only gotten worse during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Rather than talk about it, we need to come up with solutions and we need to come up with solutions now. The merchants, the mom and pop shops are struggling badly right now because of COVID and having the addition of social issues in our downtown is adding to that stress and fatigue that everyone is feeling."

She notes the BIA has been working towards solutions for the downtown.

"We have been working with individuals who will start to help us in cleaning the downtown. We have been working with other organizations in the area over the last year and a half, we have created a safe street committee. We have been working with local police, they come into the office everyday, we do work together, we do work hand in hand but unfortunately the issue is bigger than the police, it's bigger than the City, it's bigger than the BIA."

Armstrong says council was very supportive and understanding and will be coming up with a report soon to help find solutions to the problem.

"They had great questions and we have done our due diligence on coming up with solutions and they were excited because were weren't coming to them to complain about the problem, we were coming to them to work together towards a solution."

A report will be coming to council soon and motion was made to form of a committee featuring the BIA, members of council and members of the community to come up with some strategic planning moving forward.

Downtown Woodstock has had a noticeable increase in homeless people in the past couple of years. This has caused all kinds of problems from thefts, to more litter, even having a place to go to the bathroom. We only have one homeless shelter in Oxford County and it runs at capacity most nights.

This is an ongoing issue and it is something that will not be solved from one council meeting or one delegation.