Seasonal greetings from Midland Mayor Bill Gordon included a look at the year past along with good tidings the town hopes to provide for residents in the year ahead.
“I can wish residents ‘happy holidays’ in the sense that the number one thing we hear about is lack of housing and affordability. Mine and council’s objectives is to make life more affordable over the next two years,” said Gordon when asked by MidlandToday about the season of gift-giving.
Gordon noted that by having the 2025 budget discussions early in January and having growth in mind, council’s holiday season would still be filled with thoughts towards making things better for residents.
“That’s what we’ll be thinking about over Christmas time as we’re with our families, and we want our residents to know that they’re in good hands, that we care about their ability to pay their bills, and we’re going to do everything we can in our small role as a local municipality to make that easier for them next year.
“Our new year’s resolution is affordability,” Gordon added.
Also in the beginning of 2025, Gordon noted that several public meetings would be held with land use applications and zoning changes.
“If I had to summarize everything, it’s growth,” said Gordon. “The community needs to grow; we need more ratepayers to spread around the costs of running the town. The province has seen that, the province is mandating it, and they’ve been giving us staggering sums of money to help facilitate that growth.”
Upcoming projects in the new year included utilizing the $30 million infrastructure grant for water and wastewater projects, which will be seen through construction at the town’s wastewater facility as well as along Highway 12 and County Road 93.
“We’re going to redo Yonge Street,” said Gordon. “That’s a really big deal and it’s going to cause a lot of consternation in town because it’s an arterial road. We’re going to be ripping it up, and putting it back together after.”
Council’s progress toward Midland Bay Landing and other campaign promises was delayed as unexpected deaths of Deputy Mayor Jack Contin and Coun. Jim Downer were replaced by Coun. Jaz Patel and Eric ‘Howie’ Major respectively, causing a six-to-nine month pause.
“Losing two council members is unprecedented,” said Gordon. “I think the key thing is we’re going to hit all of our promises, all of our objectives, everything that we campaigned on doing as a council. We’re going to make all that stuff happen over the next year and three-quarters until we go lame duck.”
In conclusion, Gordon provided words of comfort for his citizens to tide them through the upcoming seasonal festivities.
“As you sit back and enjoy holidays with your family – hopefully it’s a safe, warm, enjoyable, and peaceful Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever celebration you’re having over this holiday season – you can look forward to some really good hard work by council to try to make life more affordable over the next two years.”
