Grey Highlands council has voted to revive a community-led plan to upgrade and improve Maxwell Park.
On Jan. 15, council held a special meeting to receive a delegation from the Maxwell community about the park project. The council chambers were packed with local residents for the meeting.
For two years, the municipality and local residents were working on a plan to upgrade the park. However, that process came to an end in Dec. 2024 when it was communicated to council that community interest in the project had waned and council was asked to cancel the project and return to donors any donated funds the municipality was holding for the work.
David Wright, the new chair of the Maxwell Park Committee, and Maxwell resident Diane Kennedy spoke at the meeting and said there continues to be plenty of community interest in the project and they asked council to consider bringing the park upgrade back to the front burner.
“We believe it’s essential to reinstate (the project) to restore the park to its former glory,” Wright said.
Kennedy said the Maxwell community continues to grow and said that there were two local developments on the horizon that would increase the population in Maxwell. Kennedy noted that one developer has expressed interest in contributing to a fund to upgrade the park.
“It is very evident that our children, grandchildren, their parents and grandparents need a safe place for quality family time in an outdoor environment,” said Kennedy.
The delegates told council there is plenty of support for the project in the community and said there are a number of local individuals and businesses willing to contribute both labour and materials for the work.
The committee said their estimate to get the work done to upgrade the park is $205,000 and they said the community would launch a $75,000 fundraising drive to support the project, along with applying for grants.
They asked council to re-instate the project and re-commit $50,000 from the parkland reserve account that had been set aside as the municipality’s contribution to the project. They also asked that the new grant writer on staff help the committee with applications for grant funding.
Mayor Paul McQueen said in the wake of the Dec. 4 decision to end the project, he spoke to community members and came to understand there was still plenty of interest in the project. This prompted him to call a special meeting to deal with the matter immediately.
“I felt it was important to come back and have this conversation again,” said McQueen. “There is a lot of enthusiasm (for the project).”
Coun. Dan Wickens volunteered to act as a council liaison with the committee and Coun. Joel Loughead said it was unfortunate a “miscommunication” had caused the project to be cancelled for a short period of time.
“I’m a huge proponent of public parks. It’s important every community has a vibrant space,” said Loughead.
At the meeting, council first passed a resolution to reconsider the original resolution to cancel the project that had been passed on Dec. 4. Once the resolution was back on the table, council voted to continue the project and have municipal staff develop a memorandum of understanding to outline how the project will move forward. CAO Karen Govan said a staff report on the project can return in early February. During the meeting, staff also confirmed the $50,000 previously committed to the project remains available. In addition, there is $8,500 in a reserve specifically for Maxwell Park.
“I’m very glad we could clear up the situation and have a path forward,” said coun. Nadia Dubyk after the motion to re-establish the project was approved.
