TBM councillors seek history of Georgian Trail
The Blue Mountains council is looking for the beginning of the Georgian Trail, background councillors suggest will be useful as they are asked to decide about developments along the trail's borders.
At a recent meeting, council passed a resolution brought forward by Coun. June Porter to get a full report from staff about the history of the popular walking, hiking and biking trail.
Porter developed the resolution after some recent council decisions about local developments that border the trail. She said it would be helpful in the future to have the full information about the trail and its management and maintenance standards, which were in place when the trail was first created in the late 1980s.
“We have developments that are occurring along the Georgian Trail,” said Porter. “I felt it would give us a little bit of guidance on what the intent was. The standards would be very helpful to have.”
The Georgian Trail is a former rail line that has been converted to a recreational trail that runs from the harbour area in Meaford to Collingwood. Meaford, The Blue Mountains and Collingwood own and maintain the sections of the trail that run through their municipalities. The trail is 34 kilometres long, with 21 kilometres in The Blue Mountains.
Originally, a joint board of management was in place to look after the trail in its entirety, but the three municipalities went away from that model in 2016 and the board was dissolved.
Ryan Gibbons, director of community services, said staff would bring back a full report about the trail and its operations. In the past, town staff prepared an annual report about the trail. The last one came to council in 2022.
Chris Fell, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, CollingwoodToday.ca
