Alberton voters reject new hall

The referendum in Alberton on Monday, while not binding, clearly showed a lack of enthusiasm for building a new community centre there.
In response to the question, “Are you in favour of the construction of a new community hall in the Township of Alberton,” some 217 voted no while just 37 were in favour.
“That’s pretty decisive. That’s good the people have spoken,” noted reeve-elect John Milling, who is set to take office in December.
“It’s not like we’d go ahead with it any more. We have to respect that,” he stressed, even though the result is not binding on the new council because less than half of the eligible voters cast ballots.
Milling had spearheaded a campaign to build the new community hall in hopes of putting some life back into the township. Now, he said he’s concerned about its future.
“I fear for the future of the community but I don’t know that building a community centre would have guaranteed the future health of the community–it worries me,” he said Tuesday.
“This is the thing I don’t understand. The general consensus I feel is the community seems to want to remain separate but the community doesn’t seem to want to separate itself, make itself sufficient,” he remarked.
The fate of Alberton is a touchy topic among residents. “I think we want to stay as a community,” said current reeve Judy Koski, who chose not to seek re-election this time around.
But Koski couldn’t explain a lack of participation in the Alberton municipal election or interest in the community hall.
“I don’t know, I can’t answer that,” she said. “You’d have to poll each and every person in the community.”
Meanwhile, Milling and the new council now must find another means of using about $95,000 in provincial funding that’s required to be spent on an infrastructure project by Sept. 30, 2001.
“If people want to give us an idea, that would be great,” said Milling.
“I don’t know what people want,” he admitted. “The saying goes if you don’t have an army, pretty soon you’ll have somebody else’s army. I think the same analogy goes for the government.
“It seems to me [Alberton is] merely a place to pay taxes and go into Fort Frances and do their activities,” Milling said.