Belleville city councillors for Thurlow ward held a town hall at the Gerry Masterson Community Centre on Tuesday.
Kathryn Brown and Paul Carr spoke to both residents in attendance as well as those online through Zoom.
Normally, the two councillors would hold a town hall around budget time, but demand for more town halls led them to put on an additional one.
“Usually we would follow those (town halls) around budget, so capital budget and operating budget, and we’ve got the feedback that residents want more interaction, and they certainly want more information, so these serve as a good platform for that,” Councillor Carr tells Quinte News following the town hall.
Councillor Brown agreed saying its a good way to get information to members of the ward.
“People really get to know their councillors when they have an opportunity, not only to hear us speak, but to ask us questions and see how that we respond,” Brown said.
“We sort of demystify what being a councillor is all about, because it’s not a lot of glory all the time.”
Several topics were broached in the over two-hour town hall, ranging from the budget, the new HART hub, property taxes, parking and more.
A topic that received significant discussion was the update regarding the Black Bear Ridge project.
“We’re going to continue to work through that and keep folks informed as we get informed, because right now it’s all informal information that’s being passed,” Carr explained.
“Obviously this input certainly informs us of the questions we need to ask a committee and go from there.”
Brown added that the two councillors are in contact with the people at Black Bear Ridge.
“Paul and I try and meet at the request of the owners, Alex Sharpe and Cale Fair at Black Bear, typically if they have something that’s a little bit difficult or a little bit controversial, or even if they just want some guidance on some things, they are very quick to reach out to their two counsellors and say, can we set up a Zoom call and just talk it through,” Brown tells Quinte News.
“So they are trying to be as transparent as they can be. It’s just that progress sometimes takes a really long time.”
You can listen to the full town hall below:
Audio Player