"Mayor Dave" aiming to make it "Councillor Dave"

Longtime Pelham mayor offers list of accomplishments, plans, he asserts makes him qualified to serve on Regional Council

“It’s a beautiful facility,” says a woman standing with a group of figure skaters to Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn as he walks across the lobby of the Meridian Community Centre.

“How’s the ice?” he responds.

It’s the second or third such interaction between Augustyn and community centre users in the span of about 30 minutes. Stopping to pick up a small piece of paper from the floor, it is obvious the Mayor is proud of the centre. He is also quick to point out the building of a new recreation centre in the community was an accomplishment of council, staff, volunteers and donors.

The Meridian Community Centre is also on a laundry list of accomplishments Augustyn mentions when he talks about his reasons for seeking election as Pelham’s Regional Councillor and giving up the mayor’s chair.

“We’ve accomplished so many things,” says Augustyn.

The accomplishments he talks about include the community centre, the revitalization of both Fenwick and Fonthill’s downtown areas, a new skate park, a new dog park, nine accessible playgrounds, many roads repaired or resurfaced, Summerfest as one of Ontario’s top 100 festivals and events, two new fire halls, completing the East Fonthill Secondary Plan and more.

“The list goes on and on,” he says. “We’ve had some great accomplishments, obviously as a council. If you go back 12 years and compare what the town was like then to what is now, it has improved dramatically.”

Those accomplishments, he says, combined with his energy and enthusiasm, are why he decided to run for Chair of Regional Council, when it was to be a directly elected position.

“So many people encouraged me to do so, they appreciated my approach,” says Augustyn, who announced on July 17 that he would run for the Regional Chair position. Fully prepared to run a region-wide campaign, Augustyn says he was surprised with the Premier’s announcement that Niagara’s chair, and three others in Ontario, would not be directly elected, and says he had to make a quick decision—to run as a Regional councillor or seek another term as mayor.

Noting the work council was able to complete in his time as mayor, Augustyn said he decided to take that “enthusiasm and energy” and put it to work on Regional Council.

An automatic member of Regional Council as mayor, Augustyn says he’s proud of the work he has done there as well, including the gateway program and incentives for business, such as the GE plant, to locate in Niagara, fighting for GO service and Regional transit, redevelopment of downtowns, and chairing the Budget Committee for four years.

Augustyn says if elected he will continue that work and will continue to stand up for integrity at the Region.

“It needs to be cleaned up,” he says. “It’s one of the reasons I’m running.”

Along with solving the integrity issue, Augustyn says he plans to work on improving the economy, cutting red tape when it applies to responsible development, partner with Brock University and Niagara College to bring more youthful ideas to Niagara, continue with Smart Growth to protect Niagara’s wetlands and other environmentally important areas, reduce ambulance back-ups at the hospital’s emergency department, bring jobs back to Niagara and “make Niagara more livable and compassionate.”

Part of the compassion, he says, is addressing the opiod crisis in Niagara, bringing Niagara its share of the 15,000 long-term beds promised by the Provincial government and ensuring there is not only enough affordable housing for those who need it, but housing that is affordable for those people who don’t qualify for subsidized housing.

Augustyn’s time on Regional Council hasn’t been without its controversy.

The council has been a group divided, with many councillors criticizing Pelham’s financing of the community centre project while Augustyn has been critical of his colleagues for their use of personal expenses to fund promotional material, not to mention projects with cost overruns, questionable hiring practices and an incident in which the Region was seen to be attacking the press.

While Augustyn did ask if the police should be called when a recording device was found in council chambers, seemingly hidden under a hat, he says his intention when asking if police were needed was to investigate and not to attack the freedom of the press. It is illegal to record council’s in camera sessions and Augustyn says he expected police to come into chambers and investigate if a crime had been committed, not, as did actually happen, for police to stay in the lobby and back up staff who ejected a St. Catharines Standard reporter and seized his notes.

A dispute with this newspaper, in which the Town refused to speak to Voice reporters, removed the media table from council chambers, and failed to include the Voice in press events, was also not an attack on the press in the style of President Trump, says Augustyn, asserting that “many people” expressed concern over stories published in the paper.

The break in communications came, however, shortly after the Ontario Community Newspaper Association announced that the Voice had won an investigative news award for stories relating to the Town’s controversial East Fonthill financing methods and land deals.

Despite belonging to the same professional organizations as it had since its founding in 1997—a 20-year period during which the Town had no problem speaking to the paper—only after the Voice joined another professional organization, the National Newsmedia Council (NNC), which had a complaint fielding mechanism the others didn’t, did the Town resume communications. Augustyn said that he’s pleased to have “a better working relationship” with the paper.

Since the Voice joined the NNC, one Town complaint has been upheld, while four have been dismissed, as reported by the paper in July.

Reflecting on his 12 years as Pelham’s mayor, Augustyn acknowledged that every accomplishment he listed has had its own type of negativity or controversy, but added council listened to and tried to accommodate those residents who opposed projects.

“For everything we’ve done folks complained, we tried as best we can to reduce and mitigate” those negative feelings.

Noting the Meridian Community Centre Oversight Committee asserted that the building is on time and under budget to the tune of $700,000, Augustyn points out residents were concerned about spending on the community centre project and what council tried to do was not only listen to those concerns but try to address them by creating the Oversight Committee.

“Council was good in that way,” he says.

Referring to the old arena on Haist Street, which just hit the real estate market listed at just under $3 million dollars, Augustyn says the “do nothing” option that many people wanted isn’t the responsible way to deal with the aging building, which was not built to code. Instead, he said, council listened and kept a significant portion of green space for a park, agreed to a path to act as a buffer, retained the paddle tennis club space and rejected those who said it should become a nursing home or affordable housing. The design controls, he added, will ensure any development in that area will be compatible to the surrounding neighbourhood, including setbacks from Haist Street.

While it hasn’t been perfect, Augustyn says he’s excited for where Pelhams is as a community, noting there has been a lot of growth in town but council planned for that growth.

“I care deeply about our community. I want our community life to be the best in the peninsula. I believe in great things for Niagara. I believe I can continue to serve at the Region and return integrity to the Region.”