Following their council meeting on April 17, the Limerick Township Economic Development Committee had a meet and greet with township residents to get community feedback on how to boost Limerick’s economic development and bring business and tourist dollars to the area. Victoria Tisdale, the clerk and treasurer, comments on this event.

The April 17 meet and greet of the Limerick Township Economic Development Committee followed the regularly scheduled council meeting at 12:30 p.m. Council was in attendance to chat with the residents that came by about economic development issues, and food and beverages were served to those who attended.

Councillor Jan MacKillican, the chair of the committee, asked the attendees to put forward their ideas and their vision for the economic development and prosperity of the township going forward. She told the attendees that the economic development committee had asked where they wanted to go in the township, with this being the first economic development committee in Limerick.

“So, we said, let’s develop a vision. You must know where you want to go to get there. So, we brainstormed as a committee what our vision was and what our ideas and our challenges are, but we would like to have input from the community. So, what we would like to you to do is go from flipchart to flipchart and add your ideas to ours. Council will be here to answer any questions and chat about the ideas too. When we’re finished, we’ll have an economic vision that’s been given input by the community and an idea of what we need to execute and then prioritize and then start to go,” she says.

One of the meet and greet attendees, Selena, owns the old marina on Steenburg Lake. She thought it was a great idea for the committee to get community feedback on the township’s economic development going forward.

“[With council] they’re kind of in an echo chamber when you have the same ideas all the time or dealing with the same challenges. So, getting varied ideas from a broader section of the community is better, different, and just brings forth more ideas,” she says.

Some of the ideas that came out of the meet and greet included a farmers’ market, an artisans’ market, a community garden, a karaoke night, a foodie event, a poker run and a classic car show, among others.

Tisdale told The Bancroft Times on April 20 that she thought that the meet and greet went well for their initial gathering.

“We got a lot of feedback from residents on things that they would like to see going forward. Staff handed out a survey during the meeting to collate some data. This same survey will be on our website [www.limerick.ca] next week for a couple of months. We hope to get input from a broader selection of our residents this way, as not all residents were available to attend this meeting,” she says. “The committee will be meeting again at the beginning of May to review the documents received from the meet and greet.”

Michael Riley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Bancroft Times