Lyn Hall and Cameron Stolz don’t exactly see eye-to-eye when it comes to how the city has spent money on roads and sidewalks over the past four years.
Stolz, who is running for council, raised the issue when he launched his campaign and has continued to be critical of decisions the current council has made. He reiterated those comments at an all candidates forum Tuesday.
“Where I see our challenges right now are in our roads and our sidewalks,” Stolz said. “The current council slashed the current road budget by five per cent and like the previous council, put one-time funding into sidewalks, while at the same time they actually cut the sidewalk budget by five per cent.”
In 2017 the city reduced its road rehabilitation budget from $7 million to $5 million to funnel, on a one-time basis, money into the sidewalk rehabilitation budget.
“We need to be fully funding our sidewalks, our roads, while addressing the shortcomings that we have in our storm sewers,” Stolz said.
Hall, who is seeking his second term as mayor, said he was proud of the work the current council has done on roads.
“We’ve invested more than $24 million in the roads over the last four years, over $3 million into sidewalks,” he said. “We heard loud and clear from people with disabilities who couldn’t navigate the current sidewalk conditions.
“We’ve got parks and recreational areas we need to work on. This is a vibrant community, we want to continue to make it vibrant, continue to make it grow.”
Advance polls for the municipal election are now open and general voting day is October 20.
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