2023 is just around the corner.
Quinte News spoke to Madoc Township Mayor Lloyd Blackburn to get his take on the past 12 months.
Blackburn says it has not been just one year of hardship.
“We’ve had many, many focuses over the last three years, it’s been difficult. Despite COVID challenges and all the rest, our main challenge was to still try and move forward. Doing that, we still managed to build a new fire hall mainly for our trauma centre.”
He says tree and property damage from storms was another problem.
“We got hit by both of them. The 24th of May one and the one in July.”
“What we’re facing right now is we’ve got stands of spruce and pine that are laying and twisted and from a fire hazard standpoint, we got quite a mess on our hands and it’s a high risk of major forest fires is what it is.”
He says the province and federal governments have not stepped forward to help clean it up, but the township is not giving up.
Blackburn says once those needles dry on the ground, they could have quite a hazard on their hands.
Road work was another focus, however Blackburn says that is something that never goes away.
