Interview with the Mayor - June 2nd, 2025

Monday, 2 June 2025 at 10:20

Mayor Jerry Acchione is back from his business trip to Asia and he's looking forward to the City Council meeting this Thursday.

WOODSTOCK - It's the final go ahead for construction crews to finish renovating the fourth floor of the Woodstock Art Gallery.

City Council will sign off on a payment of $235,185 from the Reserve for Capital Projects during this Thursday's council meeting.

Mayor Jerry Acchione says it's the final approval for the project, which will be a great benefit to the community.

"We're going to have a fourth floor for more activities, cultural space, rental space, and generally more things to do here in the City of Woodstock."

City Council has actually approved the payment back in November 2022, but only if the Art Gallery received funding from the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings grant program. It applied for the funding and was notified in December of that year, that the federal government would invest up to 80 percent of total eligible project expenditures. This works out to a maximum of $904,740.

Mayor Acchione says this week's council agenda also includes some big construction projects.

"So we've got some fairly major construction with watermain work on Dundas Street and Patullo Ave reconstruction. These are contracts that have been bid on and we're going to approve them moving forward."

Council will consider awarding a $1,322,849.47 contract to Viewcon Construction for the Dundas Street watermain replacement and a $1,385,512.10 contract to Sierra Infrastructure for the Patullo Ave reconstruction. Both of those prices include HST and they both came in under budget. The city had set aside $2,016,000 for the Dundas Street watermain replacement and $1,925,000 for the Patullo Ave reconstruction in the 2025-2029 Capital Budget.

Thursday's City Council meeting will begin at 1:30 p.m. and it will be livestreamed on the City of Woodstock YouTube page. You can also find the meeting agenda online here.

During his interview on the Heart FM morning show today, Mayor Acchione also discussed the following:

- His recent business trip to Asia with the Southwestern Ontario Manufacturers Association.

- His meeting with Kuri Tech while in Japan. They are preparing to open a facility in Woodstock this summer.

- How he's attending a Pride flag raising ceremony at Wellkin this afternoon.

- He also thanked Acting Mayor Liz Wismer-Van Meer for chairing meetings and attending community events in his place while he was away.

You can listen to the full interview below: