Pelham, Ontario

PELHAM, ONTAR IO heavily travelled by vehicles and pedestrians and cyclists that isn’t safe and, in no way, promotes active transportation. So, we feel that this is a major need in the town. There are, as well, several deficiencies with this roadway; there’s very poor drainage, so we have severe flooding, and there’s infrastructure upgrades with respect to our water mains that we need to address, as well.” “So, this project is very important for several reasons,” Marr continues. “It urbanizes a main arterial road to provide efficient traffic movement, as well as safe pedestrian movement, making it usable by all types of transportation, including cyclists. We’ll be installing new underground infrastructure, as well. With our limited capital budget, it would be very hard for the town to undertake work of this magnitude. If we’re successful in receiving the funds through the grant, we will be adjusting our 20-year forecast to include this project. It will be phased in, in three projects that run in consecutive years, so in the next three to five years, we would have this project complete. The project is shovel-ready, the design has been completed, and we’re hoping that this grant will allow the town to go ahead and reconstruct this section of road.” Another recent grant that the Town of Pelham has received has allowed it to bring onboard a full-time climate change coordinator. Funding for the climate change coordinator was provided through the Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program (MCIP), delivered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), and funded by the Government of Canada. Marr explains, “The responsibilities of that position is to look at the effects of climate change in the town, and develop an adaption plan so that we’re prepared as a community to face any challenges that may come. We partnered with Brock University’s research department for developing, not only an adaption plan for the Town of Pelham, but also looking at how climate change will affect the Niagara region as a whole. We’re also working closely with other municipalities in the region who were successful