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Madawaska Valley’s Joint Community Safety Well-Being Plan Starting to Take Shape

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The Township is following in the footsteps of North Hastings and hope to create a joint Community Safety and Well-Being plan.

Bancroft’s Clerk Lianne Sauter presented to council about how they worked on getting their plan together. The North Hastings plan involves all seven municipalities within the area. Work on that plan is already underway with its expected completion date being January 2021.

Councillor Ernie Peplinski is also the Chair of Fire, Protection and Emergency Management where this idea was first brought forward and is optimistic that money will be made available from the government to help with the plan. He points out that this would be a multi-year project so it’s likely that another body would need to be brought in to help which would be a full-time job with the Township. They will have to look into what doing this plan will cost before going forward, he explains. “We’re in the business of spending money, but make sure we spend it wisely,” Peplinski says. 

During the presentation, stats were shown pointing to the OPP’s high calls for service rate regarding mental health. “We have a lot of people in our community that are struggling,” Peplinski says. He explains that council needs to be cognisant of that because by doing something like raising taxes one-percent, it could put a lot of stress on some people in the community.

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“We don’t have a major problem with policing,” he adds. When council was working on an Economic Development plan in 2010 they had policing issues that needed to be worked out, but have since made the changes necessary to help get the force back on the track. 

“We have a township with a lot of growth,” Peplinski says. This plan could help continue that, but he says that they need to make sure they’re doing it the right way. “We’re very fortunate to be where we’re at,” he says of the Madawaska Valley. Peplinski says council wants to create an environment where people want to visit the Valley, and he believes they are on track to do just that.

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