Cory Thompson

Oct 09, 2014

Councillor

Cory Thompson – extending community activism

Cory Thompson moved to Central Frontenac from the Erinsville area when he was in grade 9, and has been living here ever since.

He worked for 17 years in Napanee for a subcontractor to the Goodyear plant. Now he works for the Community Patient Transport Group (CPTG) out of Kingston. CPTG does non-emergency patient transport from hospital to hospital, nursing homes and to patient homes.

He has been a long-time firefighter and Olden Recreation Committee member and a couple of years ago he founded a not-for-profit baseball league that works in parallel with the Central Frontenac Minor Ball Association.

Thompson has also been one of the major proponents of the new ball field in Mountain Grove, which is being built on the land that runs between the school and the fire hall.

“The field is almost done, and it will be ready next year. It will be a real asset to the community and will be a much better and safer location than the existing park, which is next to the township garage and the Olden waste site,” he said.

He said that he was drawn to running for Council because he “really cares about the community and people are always talking to me about things they would like to see happen in the township. I feel I have a strong voice and have shown dedication to other projects I have overseen within the community."

One of the improvements he would like to see coming from Council is more public involvement in decision-making.

“Council needs to listen to the public more; they need to get out and talk to the taxpayers. I think they need to have public meetings if a big decision is coming up before it happens."

During the campaign he has found that roads and taxes are the issues that keep coming up.

“These are big issues. It has been questioned by some residents about South Frontenac having lower taxes and they even have garbage pickup; and people wonder why we don't but our taxes continue to increase."

Regarding the purchase of the former Hinchinbrooke school, he said, "At this point before any big decision is made on the Hinchinbrooke school building I think it’s very important to find out what the upkeep cost will be and to see whether we really need it. We need to sit down and look at our options.”

Finally, he thinks the township needs to be more aggressive in trying to get grants for public works projects and stop the unnecessary spending.