Last Saturday over 200 residents voted and the District of Port Edward will now be able to borrow up to $2 million to construct a new school joined to the current municipal building after a referendum on the issue passed.
After all of the anticipation on the referendum and what it would mean for the community, 204 Port Edward residents came out to vote with 175 of them voting in favor. 29 were opposed to the idea.
“I was very happy with the number of people that came out to vote,” commented Mayor Dave MacDonald.
“The numbers show that the community really wants the new school.”
Mayor MacDonald and the District of Port Edward aren’t the only people who are happy with the referendum going through. The school board is also ecstatic that a new, more appropriate sized school can potentially be opened in the community.
“We are very excited for Port Edward. They’ve done a lot of hard work at the council and have certainly been very patient with the whole process, so to see the referendum passed is great. We’re thrilled for them,” said School District 52 Board Chair Tina Last.
“It’s a win-win for Port Edward and the school district.”
Now that the referendum has passed the district will have to wait nine days in what is known as a “cooling off” period, where everything will be checked over. Once this is complete, the district will move forward with a bylaw that would allow the district to start building the school.
If the bylaw goes through in early June, the district will then start applying for grants from the government to help with the cost of the school.
“We have said since day one that we would try to keep the cost of [the borrowed money] down by getting the government to commit with helping us. We don’t feel like all of the costs should be on the Port Edward taxpayers,” said MacDonald.
“I want to assure all the residents, and the 29 people who voted against the referendum, that we will do everything in our power to keep the cost down and not have to borrow all of the two million.”