Mooney era officially ushered in at town council

By Michael Gorman

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

Yarmouth town council wasted little time getting down to business — both new and old — last night at its first regular meeting since the Oct. 18 municipal elections.

After a swearing-in ceremony and the election of Byron Boudreau as deputy mayor, the group went right into a meeting. Boudreau, who was nominated by councillor Ken Langille won a vote against councillor Martin Pink, the former deputy mayor who was nominated by councillor Esther Dares.

The Mayor Phil Mooney era was ushered in with the news that five of the town's committees would change to Committee of the Whole format. Those committees include the Finance Committee, Public Works Committee, Nominating Committee, Dangerous and Unsightly Premises Committee and the Audit Committee.

The Committee of the Whole, which includes the mayor and all six councillers, will meet at noon on the fourth Thursday of every month for a public meeting to discuss any and all matters pertaining to any of the five committees.

Mooney said the move is designed to streamline council, cut down on the number of meetings and try to speed up the process of getting things done. "We'll have a better flow of information," said Mooney. "We could deal with (all five committees) in that one (meeting) or just one (committee) depending on the situation."

In other council news, council instructed staff to examine the dormant properties owned by the town to see if there is a possibility of getting them back in the hands of the public and, thus, back on the tax roll. It's been long documented that there is little room for the growth of the town's tax base and it was suggested that this could be one way to increase tax revenue for the town.

And it also didn't take long for the subject of Th'YARC, a much-debated topic around the town council table during the last year, to be raised. Although there was some debate about council's role in talks of a new arts facility, the general consensus was to have a meeting with members of Th'YARC's executive later this month and go from there.

Council also created two new committees. The Yarmouth 250th Anniversary Committee will be a joint committee tasked with preparing to mark Yarmouth's 250th anniversary while the Public Information Technology Committee will look at ways to make the town more technologically advanced in terms of public Internet connections, security cameras and other technological matters.