‘Tis the season of giving and receiving, and the best gifts come in sets of three.
Various municipal achievements were announced at this week’s Tiny Township regular council meeting, with over $10,000 in awards, donations and grants being received, ultimately to be passed down to the residents in various ways.
To start the meeting was a presentation by Severn Sound Environmental Association executive director Julie Cayley, who spoke about the Wege Small Cities Sustainability Best Practices Award she had received on behalf of Tiny Township at the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Cities Initiative conference in Chicago this summer.
“The award is for the Renaturalizing Tiny project,” said Cayley, explaining that the initiative replaced underutilized paved spaces with green spaces for community gardens, pollinator habitats and other beneficial means.
Cayley unveiled a box containing the award, adding that “it was a little hard to get back on an international flight,” to the amusement of council and audience members.
Coun. Kelly Helowka commented: “I’d just like to commend (recreation) director Bonita Desroches for all of her efforts in initiating this project, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed.”
The presentation was followed by applause and a second announcement by public works director Tim Leitch who explained that Tiny had been a recipient of a gift as part of the Simcoe County Roads Supervisors Association.
“They raise money through their different events,” Leitch explained. “This year, they had a bit of a surplus, so what they’ve done is they’ve divided up the money among the participating members.
“I’m happy to say they’ve given us a cheque for $1,000 for a local food bank, and it’ll be donated in the name of Tiny Township.”
Further applause was given, and Coun. Steffen Walma provided the final announcement regarding the township’s electric vehicle charging stations.
In conjunction with SSEA sustainability coordinator Jon Main, Enbridge Gas and public works director Leitch, Walma stated: “We do have a successful grant application… We just received $10,000 that we can apply into sustainability projects within the municipality.”
Leitch emphasized Main’s involvement, noting he “was very instrumental in getting this.”
“The SSEA raised this item with the township about this grant application. We utilized the funding that we’ve put into our two EV (electric vehicle) stations and the staff time that went into that,” said Leitch. “This is an ongoing, annual thing; and we’ll continue to work towards getting this every year.”
Archives of council meetings are available to view on the Township’s YouTube channel.
