The Downtown Simcoe BIA had to ask county council for a $4,000 increase to their budget because of an issue that doesn’t seem to be going away – people dumping garbage in the downtown core.
Les Anderson spoke to our elected officials, who over the past two years have been funding the BIA’s efforts to clean up the core, as people either choose to dump garbage well ahead of collection day or just dump big bulky items that the county garbage system would not pick up.
With that, an additional $4,000 would be added on to bring it up to $14,000 this year.
Anderson says the know what the issue is, but there is no real solution in sight.
The BIA also cleans up other parts of the Downtown as well with this funding.
Council approved the additional $4,000 for this project, totaling a $14,000 grant.
The overall budget the county is giving the BIA this year, excluding the grant, is the same as last year at $185,400.
The biggest driving factor this year for expenses, thus far, is “Beautification.”
That is currently slated in the 2023 budget at $86,000.