Pelham’s ward boundary map could look a bit different by the next municipal election. The Town has begun the process of reviewing its ward boundary system and staff want to know what’s most important for residents when deciding how to section the municipality into wards.
“The primary reason for doing this review is to make sure that the council is structured in a way that is responsive and meets the needs of the community,” Town Clerk Bill Tigert said. “Part of the review is to look at and make sure the wards are equally distributed so that the size of the wards are balanced as far as equally representing the same or as close to as possible, the same number of electorate.”
The last time ward boundaries were reviewed was in 2013. Following that review, the ward boundaries were redrawn. Since then, neither the ward boundaries nor the composition of Town Council have been systematically reviewed.
During the review, Tigert said staff will look at the selection process for the role of Deputy Mayor, current council structure and ward boundaries will be evaluated and considered against alternatives.
The first of two public consultation sessions was held Feb. 12 at Pelham Fire Station 2. Tigert said the meeting received a small turnout and the residents in attendance expressed they didn’t have major concerns about the current system.
The second public consultation session will be held tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 27, inside the Meridian Community Centre’s Accursi Room from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. Tigert said Town staff are hopeful the second meeting will have a bigger turnout than the first session had.
“We’re not just necessarily looking at the next election. Pelham is growing and we’re looking at trying to balance the wards over the next two or three municipal elections. There is definitely some tweaking that needs to be done with the growth around Fonthill and the planned growth for East Fenwick,” he said. “There’s a real likelihood that the numbers are slightly imbalanced now.”
Residents unable to attend the upcoming meeting can fill out an online survey available on the Town’s website until March 10. The survey is available here.
Tigert said once the information from the survey and both public consultation sessions are gathered, staff will prepare a report that will be presented to the council for consideration by the end of May or June.
“There's a bit of a clock ticking on the whole exercise and that's why we specified within the call for proposals to get this done early this year,” Tigert said. “There would be things that would have to be done both in the fall of 2024 and into 2025 to make the changes necessary for the municipal election that's scheduled for October 2026.”
