As the year ends — Owen Sound Mayor Ruth Lovell Stanners is looking back at 12 months that saw both good and bad times for the city.
She says one of the most difficult tasks she and council had to deal with was the closure of the PPG plant here in January and lay off of 170 workers.
Lovell Stanners says it was very upsetting to see these workers — many in their mid 50’s — beginning the difficult task of trying to find another job in difficult economic times.
She says while it was upsetting lose one of the cities larger employers, it was encouraging to see one of the cities other big employers, RBW Transcontinental expand and hiring workers.
The Mayor says another positive that occurred in the city last year was the large increase in student enrolment at Georgian College and the fact a residence for students could very well be constructed in 2010.
Looking ahead — Lovell Stanners says with a loss of more than 400 thousand dollars in Provincial funding city staff again will be going over the books looking for different ways to try and save money.
She says every department head is looking for efficiencies so the city wont have to cut services.
Lovell Stanners once again reiterated that staff layoffs as a way to save money was simply not in the cards, saying they made a commitment to staff there would be no layoffs during the economic downturn.
She says if a person retires, then they will look very closely as to whether or not that position would be filled.