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George's Brook-Milton votes yes to becoming stand-alone town

George's Brook-Milton is the new town on the Rock

Residents have voted in favour of making George's Brook-Milton Newfoundland and Labrador's newest municipality.

The secret ballot vote, held Tuesday night, showed a 66.1 vote in favour of the move, with 70 per cent of eligible voters participating.

Craig Pardy, chair of the local service district, said Wednesday the next move is setting up a meeting with provincial government officials to move forward.

"The next step, and where we go, we've already made application now to the government and to the minister to look at becoming incorporated, and hopefully meeting with their officials to see what the steps are," said Pardy.

Earlier this year, the province's commissioned feasibility study, conducted by LW Consulting, recommended that the district become a stand-alone municipality.

The right move

Pardy said some people in the community were apprehensive about that, but he hopes time will prove it was the right move.

"There were a lot of fears coming forward and I think when change was difficult and didn't know where they see the community going. Like what if we ran out of money or what if it became a bigger challenge?" he told CBC's Central Morning Show.

But he said those fears should hopefully be assuaged.

"What we look forward to be able to show that in the following months and years is that those fears would be certainly diminished and put aside, so time will certainly show all that this has been or will be a great move for our community."