Wednesday is shaping up as another busy evening of city council committee meetings.
Things begin at 4 p.m. in the Council Chamber with community safety committee and a presentation by Bright Futures Barrie.
It provides funding for programs and initiatives around prevention and intervention of guns and gangs — supporting those between the ages of six and 26.
Bright Futures Barrie is funded through Public Safety Canada’s building safer communities fund.
At 4:30 p.m., or right after community safety committee meets, finance and responsible governance committee meets in the Council Chamber.
Committee members will hear two presentations — the first by Tom Ewles of the Barrie Sports Hall of Fame, the second by Barrie Public Library officials on key performance indicators (KPI).
Among the things sought by the Sports Hall of Fame is $30,000 in annual city funding.
Library officials will be talking about KPI, such as the number of physical visits to the three library branches, participants in library programs and new library memberships.
General committee of council is scheduled to meet in the Council Chamber at 7 p.m.
It will consider approving pedestrian crossovers on the west legs of Blake and Huron streets, and Blake and Rodney streets, in the 2025 capital plan, budgeted at $150,000 each and funded 60 per cent from development charges reserves and 40 per cent from the tax capital reserve.
Councillors will consider endorsing in principle the federally funded sport tourism strategy, and establishing a sport tourism working group, in partnership with Tourism Barrie.
And the parks, horticulture and forestry operations branch service level review could be approved to assist city council with the prioritization of services provided by the branch, to allow staff to develop budgets in line with council’s priorities and desired service levels, to prepare for anticipated growth or expansion of parks, trails, sport fields and courts, and to estimate operational costs as part of staff reports for new parks and park assets..
Also to be considered is that a maximum budget of $125,000 be approved for the community safety and well-being advisory committee to hire a consultant to support the review and any revisions to Barrie’s community safety and well-being plan.
And that the community safety and well-being advisory committee’s member composition be changed to add representatives from the County of Simcoe (social housing, emergency shelters and homelessness prevention programming) and from the Barrie Area Native Advisory Circle.
The community safety and well-being plan reviews what are called ‘risk factors’ in the city, including systemic discrimination and other social factors that contribute to crime, victimization, addiction, drug overdose and suicide.
The city’s procedural bylaw says the community safety and well-being committee is an advisory committee authorized by city council. It reports to city council through Barrie’s community safety committee.
