Interview with Mayor Jerry Acchione - Monday October 30th

Monday, 30 October 2023 10:49

During an interview with Heart FM this morning, Mayor Jerry Acchione talked about the safe injection site decision and an upcoming special meeting about housing density.

WOODSTOCK - It was a close one but Woodstock City Council decided not to support a safe injection site.

It was a 4-3 vote during the last council meeting and Mayor Jerry Acchione had to be the tiebreaker. He explains why he voted against it.

"If we were going to spend one penny on somebody doing the drugs, then I think that dollar really should go to the beds and treatment for those who want to get off any kind of drug use. Until there are so many beds available, then I don't know how I can wrap it around my head to endorse it."

Council unanimously supported the idea of finding other ways to support people who are struggling in our community and Mayor Acchione says we can expect exciting news related to that in the future.

Another controversial issue will be addressed at this week's council meeting. The updated fireworks bylaw, which bans the sale and distribution of consumer fireworks in Woodstock, is back on the agenda. Once it gets the final go-ahead, it will take effect in January 2024.

This week's council agenda also includes some parking changes throughout the Friendly City. There's a list of locations where no parking will be allowed and intersections where Stop signs will be installed. You can find more information on pages 76 and 77 of the agenda.

This Thursday's council meeting will begin at 1:30 p.m. and you can find the agenda online here. You can also livestream the meeting on the City of Woodstock YouTube page.

During his interview on the Heart FM morning show today, Acchione also talked about a Density Strategy Special Meeting that will be taking place at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday November 9th. He says council will meet with staff to talk about everything from additional residential units to large apartment buildings.

"How that is going to look like in basement apartments, garages, and how we want to go about doing that with parking as well as looking at intensification. How high do we want to go in the City of Woodstock, do we only want to do it downtown or do we want to do it all over?"

He says the meeting will be open to the public, but they're not accepting delegation requests at this time.

You can listen to our full interview with Mayor Jerry Acchione below: