Raising Digby's Profile

Digby’s mayor Ben Cleveland says people know where Digby is now.

“My goal when I was elected was I wanted to move Digby ahead, I wanted to raise Digby’s profile.

"Over the last few years we’ve been successful at knocking down the fences we built around the town.

“We had kind of isolated ourselves but the last couple years I’ve really concentrated on looking outwards and getting the word out: ‘We’re here, there’s lots happening here, we’re open for business.’ ”

He says he has put a lot of effort into meeting with provincial ministers and our federal representatives.

“I want to make sure they know who we are and what our plans are in case there’s something they can do to help us.”

He says the rewards of that work is the province’s recognition of Digby harbour as the best choice to supply and service the tidal energy projects proposed for the Minas Passage.

“That was a major goal for last year.  And we’ve got to continue that work. That could be the key to stabilizing the economy here. You’re not going to wake up one day and see thousands of new people in town but you will see some stable employment.”

He says next year they need to focus on finding a site—either at the existing harbour facility—or a new site to service the tidal industry from.

Another exciting development would be the new health clinic.

“We’ve got a couple new doctors up at the hospital now and we need to make them feel welcome because they will be choosing a place to settle down and we’d really like them to stay here. We’ll hopefully see construction begin on that later in 2012. That I think might help doctors make their decision for Digby.”

The mayor‘s other big goals coming were controlling expenses and holding the tax rate.

“We managed to do that though to be honest that isn’t the work that really excites me as mayor.”

He is also happy to see the Smith’s Cove wastewater treatment project with the municipality moving forward and other small improvements around town: the new concrete sidewalks up by the hospital and LED lighting tests on Water Street for example.

They mayor says during the 2008 campaign he talked about reviewing council size and says he’d like to get in on the council agenda by March.

He says council would have to talk about it if they decide to move forward they may hold some public discussions and then hire someone to look at the question from the outside.

“We could probably go down by two to a mayor plus four councilors, but I’d like to see what other people think. I’d like to see us review it anyway.”

Whether that can be done and any changes implemented before the municipal elections in October is another question.

About his own intentions Cleveland would only say he “hopes” he is running.

“It’s too early to talk about that. There’s still a lot of work to be done in this term.  I hope I am. I’m certainly enjoying it.

“If you take the job seriously, it consumes a big part of everyday—the demands are daily. That makes it tough but also very rewarding.”

Story by Jonathan Riley

The Digby County Courier

January 3, 2012.