Justin Gray

Oct 09, 2014

Councillor

Justin Gray – Olden always struggles for what it gets

This is Justin Gray's third run for Council and although he still sees problems in the way Central Frontenac operates, he is a bit less harsh in his criticism than he was eight and four years ago.

Aside from his interest in politics, Gray is also a 13-year member of the fire department and serves as the health and safety representative.

He thinks that Olden “has not really had its share” of capital work as compared to other parts or the township, but, “the township has been doing better than before. They are going after more grants out there. There has been an improvement in the roads.”

That does not extend to one of the roads in Mountain Grove, however.

“Mill Road is a disaster,” he said, “for a road that has a fire hall on it to be in that sort of condition is terrible. They really should take it back to gravel and start over again instead of patching it over and over again.”

It will be a struggle to get council to fix Mill Road, he said, just like “we had to beat the ground before we got our fire hall built and it has been a struggle with the ball-field as well.”

He also said that the township needs to get a grip on managing its public works employees.

“I drive by a road crew and see six people standing around and two working. Maybe there is a reason but with no one watching over, how do we know if there is one?” he said.

However, his main reason for running this time around is not to deal with public works issues, but to make the township more self-sufficient and more prosperous.

“I want to see the township as a whole prosper,” he said, “and I'm running to be a voice for those who can't make it out to the meetings to have their opinion heard. I'm running to see the township create more jobs, more opportunity. We need more tourism, more retirees coming in, and more young families.”