Chatham-Kent council will get right into taking care of business tonight in what will be their first meeting of their four-year term.
One of their first significant decisions is whether to approve a five-year lease to an Intercounty baseball franchise to use Chatham’s Fergie Jenkins Field.
As part of the lease agreement, the baseball franchise will require Chatham-Kent to make some improvements to the baseball stadium, including new bleachers. Overall the municipality will be looking at required spending of $195,500 next year to get the baseball field ready for the team, as they will look to start playing in 2024.
Chatham-Kent will also be on the hook for operational and lifecycle cost increases annually, at a cost of approximately $90,000 a year.
Council will also start the process of creating more affordable housing, by looking to approve spending just under a quarter million dollars for architectural services for the design and creation of a 17-family affordable housing unit.
The proposed unit would be built on vacant municipal land on McGeorge Street in Blenheim.
The affordable housing project in Blenheim will target families, with rents set at 80 percentage of average market rent for all units.
