After an EF2 tornado hit the Tweed area in 2022, the municipality went to work on securing funding to help rebuild and recover from the storm.
Mayor Don DeGenova said the community was struggling after the tornado and that the government was not responding to their calls.
After a push, funding was finally secured.
“We started lobbying the government and through our efforts, and I will say it was the Municipality of Tweed’s efforts, we were able to secure $5.5 million from the provincial government to help the areas that were impacted by the tornado in which we received $1.2 million,” DeGenova tells Quinte News.
The mayor outlined some of the ways the funding was used.
“We started clearing all of our ditches. We helped implement a fire SMART program, which allowed us to help clear 30 metres around individual homes. We cleaned up the river and we’re doing some reforestation this spring. So we’re very grateful for that and I know it’s not enough, but it’s something at least.”
DeGenova thanked MPP Ric Bresee for his lobbying of the issue as well as MP Shelby Kramp-Neuman for continuing to support their efforts in trying to secure more funding.
Also accomplished in 2023 was saving money on the Pomeroy-McClellan infrastructure project.
The project was initially a two-year initiative that would cost Tweed in the neighbourhood of $5 million.
Through negotiations and working with contractors, the project would be completed in a year saving the Municipality of Tweed $1.1 million.
“I just want to put it into context, when I raise taxes in our community here, a one per cent tax increase gives me $46,000. So by saving $1.1 million, we save the taxpayers of this community a considerable amount of money.”
