Interview with Mayor Jerry Acchione - Monday May 15th

Monday, 15 May 2023 12:04

During his interview with Dan and Marcie this morning, Mayor Jerry Acchione talked about an upcoming planning report for the Cedar Creek Golf Course property.

WOODSTOCK - The City of Woodstock could be getting some new park land.

During this Thursday's meeting, city council will look over a planning report for the old Cedar Creek Golf Course property, located between Parkinson Road and Juliana Drive.

Mayor Jerry Acchione says the city will consider a land-swap agreement with the property owners.

"There's half an acre which the City of Woodstock owns that backs a little section they own. They're going to put an apartment building up and we get 40 acres of land that we can now use as an additional park."

Acchione says the 10-storey apartment building application currently includes 125 units. It would be located on the corner of Juliana Drive and Lampman Place, across the street from where the golf course clubhouse used to be located.

As for the 40 acres of potential park land, it's undetermined whether it would be added to Southside Park or become a new park of its own.

Acchione says this Thursday's Council meeting will also include the finalization of the tax rates. Five local high school students will each receive a $1,000 bursary through the Civic Award of Excellence.

During his interview with Dan and Marcie this morning, Mayor Acchione also briefly talked about the water discussions going on at the county level.

As of right now, Tillsonburg and Woodstock handle their own water and wastewater operations, but the County owns the infrastructure. Lately, there's been talks of potentially changing things up, so the County handles it all, which has sparked concern for City and Town employees.

This Thursday's council meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. and you can find the agenda online here. You can also livestream the meeting on the City of Woodstock YouTube page.

Acchione says it has been years since the three parties have reached an agreement on the matter, so it's time for a new one.

"It is outdated. It certainly wasn't meant for a city of 50,000 people. Things have changed a lot in the last 15 or 20 years and it (the agreement) needs to change."

Oxford County Council discussed the matter for more than three hours during last Wednesday's meeting, before Acchione brought forward a motion calling for a new agreement. His motion was passed by his fellow councillors.

You can listen to our full interview with Mayor Jerry Acchione below: