It appears a lot of Southampton residents living north of the Saugeen River have a lot to say about a proposed sanitary sewer expansion project.
A public town-hall-type meeting was held last night in Southampton and close to 300 residents jammed the old town hall, armed with questions and opinions.
Saugeen Shores Chief Administrative Officer Ron Brown conducted the meeting and he says it was difficult to judge what the mood was.
Brown admits there was quite a bit of opposition to the proposed plan as it stands now but he was pleased to see many out in favour of the plan.
He says usually those that are in favour of any project, tend to stay away from these types of meetings.
Brown says there were two concerns that were outstanding.
He says people have not had it proven to them that a sanitary sewer system is really needed north of the river to replace the septic system.
Secondly, Brown says the issue of how affected taxpayers are going to pay for this new service was raised several times at Wednesday night’s meeting.
Brown says a second meeting will be held tomorrow at 2 PM at the Plex in Port Elgin so that weekend cottage owners have a chance to express their opinions and concerns.
Brown suggests when the public input is gathered it will be up to council to decide whether or not to go ahead with the project.
The federal and Ontario governments are each contributing over 5.8 million towards the 17.6 million dollar plan to install sanitary sewers north of the Saugeen River.
The town would have to come up with the other third.
Brown believes if the project doesn’t go ahead, the money will probably have to be returned to the senior levels of government since the town specifically applied for the money dedicated to the sanitary sewer job.