Interview with Woodstock Mayor Jerry Acchione

Thursday, 16 February 2023 10:35

During his interview with Dan and Marcie this morning, Woodstock Mayor Jerry Acchione talked about the packed agenda for tonight's Woodstock City Council meeting.

WOODSTOCK - It's going to be a long night at Woodstock City Hall.

City council has a packed agenda for tonight's meeting with a total of 540 pages, including 10 planning reports.

Council will also be looking over the results of the downtown bench survey. It had hundreds of comments online and Mayor Jerry Acchione read every single one of them.

"There is a mixed opinion of course, but I would say that a lot of people seem to be in favour of introducing them back for multiple reasons. Of course, council will have that debate tonight and we will talk about it."

City council is considering reinstating the benches in the downtown core, after the previous city council decided to remove them due to safety concerns. The online survey received 1,557 responses and you can find more details online here.

Acchione says CAO David Creery will present a glimpse of the revenue budget to city council tonight, ahead of next week's budget meetings.

"Next Tuesday (February 21st) and Thursday (February 23rd) at City Hall we are doing a step-by-step, page-by-page, item-by-item for each department. So it will be quite interesting and these meetings will be open to the public."

Both of those meetings will begin at 5:00 p.m. and Acchione says they're hoping to approve the budget on March 16th.

Tonight's City Council meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. and it will be livestreamed on the City of Woodstock YouTube page. You can view the agenda online here.

During his interview with Dan and Marcie this morning, Mayor Acchione also talked about the following:

- The 10 planning reports on tonight's agenda including two major developments in the works. One would be located west of Karn Road and the other would be close to the old Woodstock Meadows property. Both of the proposed developments include over 900 residential units each.

- Acchione judged a chili cook-off at the Woodstock Navy Club on Super Bowl Sunday.

- His thoughts on the Super Bowl and the final results.

You can listen to the full interview below: