THUNDER BAY – Mayor Bill Mauro says a small turnout at a post-budget town-hall meeting on Tuesday night might be a sign they're not needed.
Mauro, who considered cancelling the first of two scheduled open houses, the first at the Kinsman Youth Centre in Northwood, decided instead to plunge ahead despite the small crowd that numbered just eight.
Among the attendees were Couns. Kristen Oliver and Albert Aiello, former at-large candidate Chris Krumpholz and long-time city hall agitator Henry Wojak.
“We wanted to see what kind of crowd was interested in a post-budget town-hall like this. It was a very small crowd tonight. Maybe you can interpret that to be a good thing, I don't know,” Mauro said. “But we've got another one booked next week at the Port Arthur Italian Hall, so we'll see if maybe that one's a little better attended.”
City officials presented an overview of the budget and then took questions from the crowd, which mostly arose from Wojak.
He questioned a variety of budget issues, including fire, police and Synergy North.
Even though few turned out, Mauro said it was just a way to reach out to the public for input and reaction.
“The budget obviously already gets a lot of time, it gets a lot of airing, and this might be an instructive exercise for me. If next week's at the Port Arthur hall is not well-attended, then maybe next year we'll consider not doing this again,” Mauro said.
“But I think maybe the current construct we have during budget maybe is what fulfills people's needs and maybe they've had enough.”
Next Tuesday's town hall is scheduled to run from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
