“Does amalgamation make sense” asks Warfield Mayor Frank Marino?
That’s the question that should be answered if the province funds phase two of the study into the future of the Village.
Council accepted the phase one study during Monday’s council meeting.
Marino says the document was the result of considerable community consultation.
“We had two full town hall meetings and people asked lots of questions,” said the mayor.
“We had people answer surveys, we had lots of chat in the community about this and the committee which was a cross section of citizens in Warfield, they looked at this and said we need to look at the next phase,” he added, which is exploring amalgamation with the city of Trail.
Marino says the there is consensus across the community after hearing from the committee and examining the documentation.
“Now the attitude is, okay let’s do it,” Marino stated, noting a shift in the community’s outlook on possibly becoming part of Trail.
“Twenty years ago that wouldn’t have been the attitude, but I think now with people looking at the reality of our taxes and expenses to run the Village and new people coming in, there’s lots of new people living in Warfield, they’re saying yeah, we need to look at it,” he explained, also saying that was a question long before the Village commissioned phase one of the study.
“When I was doing my politicking, running for mayor, I had all kinds of people say, why are we separate from Trail, how did that happen?”
Marino expects it will be a lengthy process.
“It wouldn’t be one or two months, it would probably be 18 months to do this and then I think take it to both communities for a referendum,” the mayor concluded.
The now disbanded Warfield Municipal Sustainability Advisory Committee started working on their phase one report in late Oct after reviewing an interim study into the state of the Village’s service, finances and governance.
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