Erin Ontario

across the town,” he says. “The intent is to have a Public Information Center where the public will come in and take a look at what this company’s come up with.” “When the engineering studies are done,we’ll be required to come up with howwe’re going to pay for wastewater treatment,becausewe’re look- ing at roughly$60million,”theMayor explains. “Moneywill have to come frommore senior levels of government,and,obviously,the townwill have to commit to borrowing to some degree. And,of course,we hope to leverage everydeveloper that wants to come to this community. So,it’s going to take some smart bargaining, going forward. But, I think it’s there, because of our location. We do have well over 500 acres of development land and they’re running out of land south of us that can be developed.” “We have a number of developers who are ready to develop; it’s just a question of addressing this sewage issue,” McCaughan adds. “We can’t definitively identify where the funding is coming from, but there will be a combination of sources we will need to leverage to bring this to fruition. We’re going through an exhaustive study, right now, that identifies how big we can actually grow according to the capacities of our river sys- tem. The community has to weigh in on that and that’s something we look forward to doing.” Coinciding with Erin’s waste water treatment project is the town’s growing focus on its eco- nomic development. Indeed, it just hired its first Economic Development Officer, Robyn Mulder. “Economic Development is a new posi- tion, here in the Town of Erin,” she states. “We’re looking at business retention and expansion. Because we are a bedroom community and our taxes predominantly come from residential, we are trying to increase the development of our industrial and manufacturing companies. So, business retention is of the utmost importance to keep and support what we have, and then grow and expand, as well.” One big step that the town of Erin took earlier this year concerned a large manufacturing plant that had been dormant for a number of years. “We finally have a new developer there, now,” Mulder reports. “They manufacture paint acces- sories and they’re looking for 40 new employ- ees. We’re also looking at formalizing a visita- tion program. That means going out to our ERIN, ONTARIO Preferred vendors n Ainley & Associates Ltd. www.ainleygroup. com n Spectrum Communications www.spectrum- communications.ca