Charles Crosby: projects to be completed

PLEASE NOTE: The Vanguard's editorial department, as a group, interviewed the two candidates for mayor, Charles Crosby and Phil Mooney. Reporter Michael Gorman, who covers town council for this newspaper, wrote the stories from the two interviews. Phil Mooney's story also appears on this website.

By Michael Gorman

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

It's been said that Charles Crosby is mayor for life. And as the clock ticks towards the election, he's going to get the chance to put that theory to the test.

Crosby says he's ready for the Oct. 18 municipal elections and challenger Phil Mooney who will surely give him his stiffest challenge in recent memory.

It's difficult to doubt him. After all, few people have as much campaign experience as Yarmouth's mayor. Crosby has sat around the Yarmouth town council table in one capacity or another for 37 years — 17 as a councillor and 20 as mayor.

For Crosby's part, the idea of reoffering was always in the cards. During an editorial board meeting with The Vanguard, Crosby said that there are projects he wants to see completed in the town and he wants to be around the council table to make sure they happen.

"The airport is one, the new (ferry) terminal that we're talking about getting for Yarmouth is another and finishing the project on Water Street," he said, referring to the portion of the street between the Milton horse fountain and the park across from Tim Hortons.

This election isn't just about projects in the future, however. With candidates trumpeting the card of change — a popular angle no matter what election you talk about these days — some voters will surely look to the past year and, perhaps, the last four years to determine how they feel about Crosby and the six sitting councillors.

One of the biggest issues du jour is the town's signage bylaw. With many businesses voicing concern about what the bylaw does or does not permit, Crosby, who sits on the town's Planning Advisory Committee, says bylaws are nothing more than guidelines and, as such, need to help maintain order in the community while fostering growth. That being said, Crosby says he knows there are problems with the signage bylaw.

"You have to look at development people and the people in the downtown core," he said. "They don't want to see signs all the way down their street and I understand that. But there's got to be a way around it."

Crosby says his view of council and the work they've done during the last four, or even eight years, given that council did not change during the last election, is positive.

But that progress doesn't end in town hall. If you see Crosby at a public event it's a sure bet he will deliver his now familiar lines that when he says 'Yarmouth,' he doesn't just mean the town but also the Municipalities of Yarmouth and Argyle. The Municipality of Clare has also found its way into the name checking via the airport. It's an important partnership, he says, and it's a partnership aided even further by the fact that there are two sitting cabinet ministers from Yarmouth County.

"Do you think the jailhouse would have happened without that cooperation? The new justice centre, do you think that would have happened? The new high school that they're talking about, do you think that would have happened? It's not just the mayor (that makes things happen). It's these four councils working together to make things come to this area."

Crosby says the partnership also shows that amalgamation is still something that should be examined for this area. There's been a lot of talk in the last year about the town's depleting tax base and Crosby says one of the few ways to really address the problem is to amalgamate, although one temporary solution is to get the province to start paying property taxes on its buildings.

"If the provincial government, in their wisdom, decides to allow justice centres to be taxed, that building alone will cover the land loss that we've lost in farm land (to development that isn't taxable). We're a small town and we're land locked."

The mayor acknowledged that little progress has been made in discussion on amalgamation, with members of the Municipality of Yarmouth's council notably opposing the idea, but he notes that the issue of the RCMP is a prime example for why it would be a good idea.

"We've got three detachments here. We don't need three detachments here — we need one detachment. Amalgamate it."

Taxes or no taxes, the new justice centre in Yarmouth's south end is the most notable development happening in town today. It's development that is long overdue for a part of town many see as long neglected. Crosby, whose roots run deep in that area, says he's pleased to see that development finally nearing completion. But, he says, it's taking too long and it's not near enough.

It is Crosby's belief that the new building will spawn further development for the area including restaurants, a park across from the justice centre and improved apartments.

"I look at South Yarmouth as most people do — it used to be the centre of town (and then) everything moved (north). Now we have to start bringing it back."

The same applies for the Milton area, says Crosby, where the town has worked to adjust bylaws so development can happen in the more commercial parts of the north end. Like the south end, Crosby says it's taking too long.

Development is not just an issue in the north or south parts of town. There is a long standing feeling that the Main Street area is falling into disrepair. It's a subject that Crosby is particularly unhappy with.

As some stores close and others struggle to stay open, Crosby says there are certainly challenges, but he remains positive that there is still time to help return the luster to Main Street. Like everything else, it will take cooperation from all parties involved.

"You can't open at 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning and close at 5 and go home," he said. "The tourists are here at night; they're walking the streets. You've got to provide them with an incentive to want to stay. They have to do this."

Crosby says such a change is not one council can force. Rather, businesses and the Chamber of Commerce need to come together and assemble a plan that would see all businesses working together to reach common ground.

"How active do you want (council) to be? We've been more active in that Main Street than any other community in this country, particularly Nova Scotia."

Crosby says council is doing whatever it can to help the downtown turn things around, including a suggestion he made about a year ago that the town take over the downtown parking lots to ease the burden of merchants.

To say the parking lots in the downtown are in rough shape would be doing them more justice than they deserve. The condition of some of them is so bad that it's hardly worth patching the holes. Merchants in the downtown can no longer afford to maintain those lots and Crosby says it's time the town steps in.

But Crosby knows new parking lots aren't enough to reverse the downward spiral of the downtown. He didn't get to be mayor for 20 years because he's oblivious. A major factor in turning around the lot of the downtown — and all of Yarmouth, for that matter — is getting new industry to come to Yarmouth.

The equation is quite simple, really: if there are jobs in town and people have money, they will want to shop and merchants will take steps to meet those needs. Crosby points to recent development on Main Street where business owners are making significant investments in their properties and attempting to turn things around.

But what about those new industries? Everyone is familiar with the ongoing talk of plans for the airport. And talk of various companies coming to town is nothing new, either. Is the town's – and its municipal partners' — approach to attracting industry one that can succeed?

Crosby says it is. The fact is, Yarmouth isn't the only place in Nova Scotia — or Canada, for that matter — that is looking to attract development and industry; the process is a time-consuming one.

"You think we're the only airport in Canada that is fighting," said Crosby. "Things don't happen overnight. It takes time and energy."