Antigonish town officials are not moving forward with a plan for a business improvement district in its current form.
Laurie Boucher, the town’s mayor, says the plan would have placed a levy on the town’s commercial ratepayers to create events downtown, among other things.
Councillors heard a report on the BID at Monday night’s monthly meeting; staff members recommended not to go ahead with it.
Boucher tells The Hawk members of the business community rejected it after a lot of consultation.
“They really want something like this- not sure if it’s the template that they want, but they were very happy that they were engaged and they were asked for an opinion,” she says. “It was very democratic; they had lots of time to learn about the BID, they had lots of time to give feedback.”
Boucher says everyone realizes something has to be done, but it has to be something that fits.
Photo credit: Town of Antigonish (townofantigonish.ca)