“It’s the same as when I first took office,” said Mayor Stéphane Sarrazin of Alfred-Plantagenet Township, also emphasizing fiscal responsibility. “I want to keep on improving communications with our citizens. And I want to manage the municipality’s ‘wallet’ like it was my own, and make our finances more efficient.”

Mayor Sarrazin noted that the township administration has changed over the past year with a new chief administrator, new treasurer, and new municipal clerk taking over the posts after their predecessors, retired or moved on to new positions. He expects that 2020 will see the new administration “up to speed” on all issues, concerns, and needs of the community, and able to advise council on how to best tackle various issues.

“I think we have some great people in all these positions,” Sarrazin said.

Four-lane connection

Mayor Guy Desjardins knows what municipal new year’s resolution he would like to see achieved for the City of Clarence-Rockland.

“We’re hoping to get ahead more on the four-laning situation,” Desjardins said during a January 6 phone interview.

The goal of a four-lane connection between Rockland and Orléans-Ottawa has been a long-standing issue for the municipality. Expanding the County Road 17/Highway 174 link between the two communities would improve traffic flow, eliminate choke points along the Cumberland village section of the route, and reduce the risk of accidents.

Mayor Desjardins also hopes the municipality will receive some good news from Ottawa, on its application for funding aid for the proposed “community hub” project to revamp some municipal facilities, like the Jean-Marc Lalonde Arena, and repurpose them for other uses.

“There would be good (future) savings if we could get that money,” said Desjardins, adding that a final decision on the municipality’s federal application could be as soon as early spring, or as late as the start of summer.

City administration presented council with a detailed report, last autumn, on the proposed community hub project. Desjardins emphasized that the overall cost of the project makes federal funding aid essential.

“If we don’t get that grant,” he said, “we definitely won’t build the community hub.”

Mayor Desjardins also hopes that the spring of 2020 will prove better than last year’s season.

“We hope we don’t get another flood,” he said.