Wayne Good

Oct 02, 2014

Councillor

Wayne Good – keeping a lid on spending

Anyone who has observed North Frontenac Council over the last nine years knows that Wayne Good is always looking to keep spending in line.

He grew up in Harlowe and spent his career working for Ontario Hydro in many parts of the province, including a 17-year stint in Bracebridge. He transferred to the Tweed office and moved back to Harlowe for the last seven years of his career in order to be close to family.

In 2005, Ward 1 councilor, Will Cybulski, left for northern Ontario. Good put his resume in and was selected as Cybulski's replacement. He was acclaimed to Council in 2006 and ran successfully in 2010.

He is happy with the work the current council has done, with one notable exception.

“We improved a lot of the operations and the township is on good footing. We are up on provincial regulations and have done some long-term planning. Other than the Ompah fire hall it's been good this last term,” he said.

To a series of proposals about the Ompah fire hall, Wayne Good has been a voice of opposition.

“I never saw how we could be considering spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade the Ompah fire hall when there are two other halls nearby and the population in that area is so small,” he said.

Partly as the result of his persistence, reparations to the hall were capped at a cost of $180,000. The renovations are now well above that amount, and the motion to lift the cap came forward, coincidentally, at a meeting where Good was not present.

“Council does what council does,” he said. “All I can do is make my position clear.”

Similarly, he is wary of any plans to build a new township office.

“I would like to look at the existing office. If you tore the walls out and started over again, it might work well enough for us,” he said.

He also expressed opposition to an idea championed by the late Mayor Bud Clayton, that of a central township hall for North Frontenac and the closing of some of the five other halls in the township.

“The halls are very important to the little communities, and they work hard to keep them up. Now that we have invested in bringing them to safety standards, they are an asset to the township. I don't look at them as a cost,” he said.

He said is running again because he can contribute to the community and he enjoys being on council, but he is worried about pending increases in OPP costs.

“We can say whatever we want about doing something else with policing, but we are stuck with the OPP. It's just another case of the province downloading costs on municipalities. All we can do is figure out how to deal with it,” he said.