Several members of the County of Brant Chamber of Commerce attended a members update meeting at the Adelaide Hunter Hoodless Homestead on Thursday, June 27, 2024.
Sherri Barna, President of the Chamber, kicked off the meeting with member introductions and Chamber board updates.
“We have amazing things happening, some things that take a lot of planning and some fun things like the Euro Soccer Cup pop-up events,” she said. “We’re just trying to be in the community and build up our businesses, because like that one saying goes, ‘a rising tide lifts all boats,” and honestly, we are just thankful to be a part of all that.”
Throughout the meeting Barna, Sue Morton, Executive Director of the Chamber, and Brad Hunter, Membership Chair, gave several updates regarding advocacy work done through the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, various marketing strategies that the County Chamber has been using to garner more interaction with the community as well as membership updates.
David Bailey, Mayor for the County of Brant, was also in attendance and stood to speak about how the County is continuing to change and grow in a positive way.
“Our population is growing and the types of people that are moving here come with their own cultures, their own festivals, their own restaurants, their own stories to tell, and they come with pockets full of money, and they’re very anxious and happy to be here,” he said. “…I used to apologize for the growth, for the traffic and for everything, but we’re dealing with a very opportune time where we have the advantage of all these new things that we can do. We’re not building additions on united churches anymore, we’re building temples, we’re building mosques, and I think we have to embrace this. This is the way it’s supposed to be and so we have to make people feel welcome. Why wouldn’t we welcome these people?”
Up next, Adam Crozier, Director of Corporate Strategy for the County of Brant, stood to speak about the upcoming Paris “Downtown Dig” project.
Earlier this month the County announced that downtown Paris, predominantly along Grand River Street North, will undergo major reconstruction, starting sometime early in 2025.
This level of construction will include replacing critical major infrastructure, and that will ensure the longevity of the thriving downtown for decades to come.
Reconstruction includes:
· New infrastructure (water, sewers) and upgraded utilities (Bell, Rogers, gas and electrical) under the roads
· New road construction
· New sidewalks (widened)
· New streetscape such as lamp posts, benches, trees
· New accessibility features
· New digital features
· New climate resiliency
As well, the downtown angled parking lot will be converted to parallel parking and a municipal parking lot will be built to accommodate visitors.
“We anticipate this is going to happen starting in March of 2025 and our hope is to have as much done as we can in anticipation of that Christmas season. … There are these major, major aspects that now come into play while trying to maintain business access,” said Crozier. “These are some huge considerations that we’re trying to wrap our minds around and make sure that everyone kind of gets through the construction project successfully. We just want to make sure that everyone understands and appreciates that on the other side of this, it’s going to be a really, really good product. It’s going to sort of transform Paris for generations.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
