THUNDER BAY – Basil Lychowyd has a laundry list of priorities he’s eager to get to work on should he succeed Cody Fraser as the new city councillor for Neebing Ward.
From lobbying for economic development and increasing the tax base, to redoing and repairing roads and infrastructure long overdue for maintenance, to making the streets of Thunder Bay and his ward safe for people, to revisiting and removing red tape that makes things tough for businesses and homeowners, there’s a lot he’d like to get done.
Lychowyd, best known as the chair of the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition’s annual fair, which this year saw record crowds descend on the fairgrounds, said he’s been encouraged to run by supporters and believes his experience at the fair will transfer well to city hall.
“I have a lot of opportunities and solutions and values that I want to give back to the community,” he said. “I get my oxygen talking to people and there are a lot of opportunities for us here in the city. The biggest two things I hear are the roads and the safety in our community.”
He’s also hearing about big-ticket items, like a proposed $46-million indoor turf facility, which was shelved for the time being by the current term of council, but could return during the coming term in some shape or form.
“I certainly want it to be voted on, because you’re playing with tax payers’ money and whatever the outcome is, is going to be,” Lychowyd said. “But there are also solutions that at a different rate. It doesn’t have to be the Taj Mahal kind of thing.”
Looking at roads, including those in Neebing, Lychowyd says he’s walked around enough to know a lot of effort still needs to happen to bring them up to standard from one part of the city to the other. It’s especially troubling in Neebing.
“I’ve got a picture on my telephone from when it rained the last time. I can put a canoe from my house to Arthur Street. The ditches are full. We don’t have the drainage that we should have. We also have to rely on calling the city to open it up,” Lychowyd said.
“There must be better materials to use in the roads. We should have a plan that when we deliver an area, there should be a plan. It’s like changing the oil in your car or a filter in your furnace. You’ve got to do that or it’s just going to fall apart. Every area is different, but it’s under the road what’s important and I think that’s what we should be looking at.”
When it comes to spending, Lychowyd wants to take a pragmatic approach.
“I call it the wants and needs. What do we need right now? The wants? Yeah, it’s nice to have this and this and this. But where are we going to find the money? Let’s say the police station. There’s a cost involved. I’m not saying we don’t need it, but when I look around, what we have around Thunder Bay, and I drive around down Arthur Street, there’s an empty courthouse there. For a couple of million dollars we could retrofit that and have another unit there. Let’s use the land that we have.”
