The mayor of Antigonish says partnerships and progress sum up the past year for her.
Laurie Boucher says a lot of initiatives came to fruition in 2019.
She says they include the new skateboard park, downtown development, and plans for a new farmers’ market building on the exhibition grounds on James St.
In a year-end interview with The Hawk, Boucher says none of those would have been possible without good cooperation with their Antigonish Co. and StFX counterparts.
“How functioning we are as a council, how fast we’ve gotten things done by working with our staff, and to finally realize that we can do so much together when we partner with our neighbours (are highlights).”
Boucher says she’s most proud of those partnerships when she reflects on 2019.
She says the lack of tendering for the new Antigonish Farmers’ Market is one thing that didn’t go according to plan in the past year.
Market board members decided to sole source construction of the project instead of issuing a request for proposals.
Antigonish town officials provided $150,000 toward the project.
Boucher tells The Hawk it didn’t turn out the way they would have liked, but they’ll learn from it and move on.
“It is such a good news story- to have this little cloud over it definitely doesn’t go as planned,” she says. “It is a learning experience for sure for us- we just didn’t even realize that it would not be considered.”
Boucher says town officials will include a condition that town-funded projects must go to tender moving forward.
She says looking forward, she plans to run again in the 2020 municipal elections.
Boucher was first elected to town council in 2012, became mayor in 2016, and says her intention is to re-offer in October.
“I can say what my plans are as of right now if everything stays the same,” she says. “I think that I would be very fortunate and honoured to run again and to be given another mandate to continue the work that this council has done in the past three years.”
Boucher says she’s proud of the projects that became reality in her first term.
