SUMMERSIDE – The opening of the Holland College Summerside Waterfront Campus was the highlight of 2012 for Summerside Mayor Basil Stewart.
In his annual year-end interview with the Journal Pioneer, the province’s longest serving mayor said the decision to locate a Holland College campus in the city’s downtown has been a major economic boost for the area.
“When you look at the building renovation, you look at how it brought in close to 300 people, students, teachers and staff, you look at how it cleaned up the building and the waterfront in that area there,” Stewart said. “And as a result of that you had the building beside it, Foodland do a complete renovation and hired 14 new people.”
Overall, that was a big shot in the arm for Summerside, the mayor said
“To go by there and see the parking lot filled with cars, it’s been a long time since that happened,” he said. “You can be assured that the students and staff buy tires, they buy gas, they buy meals downtown or they buy groceries where they’re living. I think many of them are living in the city. I think as time goes on more of them will.”
Stewart said Summerside experienced a good year in terms of development with permits topping the $20 million mark.
“The opening ADL, the newly renovated building, that was a big highlight in 2012,” Stewart said. “It was a major construction job. And something else that started this year was the sports hall of fame. There were a number of meetings held at the beginning and we got the assurances from Minister Doug Currie that it will be in Summerside. There’s a committee set up working on that right now and hopefully in the New Year they can get moved forward some more.”
For more see Friday's Journal Pioneer
