The warden of Antigonish Co. says the municipality had strong growth in 2020.
Owen McCarron says municipal officials want that to continue in 2021.
In a year-end interview, McCarron tells The Hawk they anticipate more commercial activity in the year ahead.
“Up at Nova Landing, the hotel piece is coming along quite nicely,” he says. “There (are) other opportunities that are starting to present as we speak.”
McCarron says they expect another strong year for the county, with several infrastructure projects lined up for 2021.
He says 2020 obviously presented challenges from COVID-19, but municipal officials were able to pivot quickly and get office employees working from home when the pandemic struck in March.
McCarron says they were concerned with the fiscal impact, but they fared very well.
“Our staff were able to get our budget done- we were a couple of weeks later than normal, so that wasn’t a huge disruption,” he says. “Our interest piece for the public, we deferred that for an extra month- that was something that took some pressure off.”
McCarron said their public works employees continued their day-to-day operations, which helped maintain a level of normalcy for residents.
Two new faces came to the council table after municipal elections took place across the province in October.
Only three of Antigonish Co.’s 10 districts were contested; the other seven incumbent councilors were acclaimed.
McCarron says they’re working on bringing Shawn Brophy in District 4 and Harris McNamara in District 9 into the fold.
“(There are) two new folks around the table,” he says. “(We’re) getting those folks up to speed, (and) we’re certainly looking forward to the next four-year term.”
Donnie MacDonald retained his seat in District 2.
McCarron was acclaimed warden by his fellow councilors in November; Hughie Stewart, the municipality’s deputy warden, also returned to his role by acclamation.
You can hear the entire year-end interview below.
