Civil Municipal Magazine - Dec 2023

222 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 12 development. “We don’t have a lot of chain restaurants or those sorts of things,” says Cope. “So, we’ve established things in our local ordinances that support our locally- owned businesses. We love to see that here.” That support from the township has been particularly apparent lately as several new businesses have emerged from the detritus of the COVID pandemic. Mouer calls them “agra-tainment,” or more precisely, “craft production facilities”– things like micro- breweries, tasting rooms, and distilleries. “It actually started during COVID,” he recounts. “They didn’t know how long the pandemic was going to last and they were looking for things to do at home or on farms, barns, and wedding venues -- getting their infrastructure ready for when the pandemic was gone.” “I was getting inundated. So, we ended up developing ordinances that would take care of that,” he continues. “Now we are entertaining Photo: Donald Chaplin