MAIN PHOTO: Steve Sinnott, the chair of the WCA, released the results of the community vote on Jan. 7. (Healey photo)
WAVERLEY: The community of Waverley has voted yes to adding an area rate on their taxes that will benefit a volunteer-run organization and in turn the community itself.
At a meeting with board members from the Waverley Community Association (WCA), the results of the community vote on an area rate that would see residents charged an extra $35 per year was announced.
The meeting was held at the community hall inside the Waverley Museum on Jan. 7.
Steve Sinnott, the volunteer chairperson with the WCA, announced that there were 201 ballots returned during the voting time frame between Dec. 21-30.
The results show 127 voted yes (63 per cent) for the area rate charge of $35 per year, while 74 voted no (37 per cent). More than 900 ballots were sent out by HRM.
ADVERTISEMENT:
The result of the vote will now go to HRM Regional Council as part of their budgeting process, where its expected they will give the community’s wishes their stamp of approval.
Sinnott said the WCA is excited to be able to move forward now that the vote results have come in.
“We’re excited about the vote going through,” said Sinnott after revealing the news to a few of the board members in attendance. “It has been a long road since 2018 as far as I know.
“We’ve been fighting this with our former councillor (Steve Streatch) when he came and told us the WCA was no longer going to have a service rate.
“The last year has been very stressful in getting the word and vote out to the community.”
ADVERTISEMENT:
The money from the area rate will be able to continue to support and operate, including paying the heating/power for the Waverley Community Hall (Heritage Museum); supporting community events; summer concert series; Gold Rush Days, and more.
This was the second time the vote was held after the WCA halted voting after issues arose at the meeting they had with an HRM representative regarding how they were recognizing who had to pay what.
The vote was redone with that clarified by mid-December.
ADVERTISEMENT:
He wanted to thank all the people who voted regardless of which way they did on their ballot.
“You voted and your message is out there, and that’s the way it should be done,” he said. “At the end of the day we were successful and we’re where we want to be.”
ADVERTISEMENT:
Sinnott was asked about the low number of votes returned compared to the amount of ballots sent out. He thinks there was a “perfect storm” of things that saw the low number of votes returned.
“I think a big reason for that was timing, around the Christmas holidays hurt us,” he said. “At the end of the day, the short timeline, they only gave us a couple of weeks, and people were very focused on Christmas.
“It would have been nice to see a larger total of votes cast, but we got the 50 plus one that we needed regardless how many total votes their was. We’re excited as an association to be moving forward.”
