It’s a new but familiar cast of characters on Meaford Council. Deputy Mayor Francis Richardson was appointed by council as the new mayor, filling in the vacancy left by Wally Reif, and sworn into the position at Monday’s meeting. Mike Traynor was appointed and sworn in as deputy mayor, and former deputy mayor Harley Greenfield returns as a councillor. Mayor Richardson says even though he was appointed and not elected to the position, he’s confident. He says the support he’s received so far has all been positive. He also feels council as a whole is moving in a positive direction, and is happy to finally have a full council ready to sink their teeth into the budget. The new troops get started right away, wading into day one of budget deliberations Tuesday. Richardson says his platform as mayor is to do “what’s best for the municipality”, and he says his number one priority is to resolve the issue of the 2007 deficit. He says it’s inevitable that taxes will go up, and he says Meaford residents should be ready for a tough couple of years ahead. But Richardson says he hopes to make the impact as minimal as possible, and a grant of about one million dollars from the province for infrastructure will give them room to do some other projects they didn’t think they’d be able to get to. The municipality’s financial consultant has projected talks to take them into May, when a budget will be formally nailed down. Richardson says that doesn’t worry him, as they’re not too far behind most other municipalities. The public budget deliberations begin today at 9AM in Meaford council chambers, and continue tomorrow.
