Protection and Celebration of Our Heritage Features - Steve Howes Councillor for Ward 2 County of Brant

August 21, 2022

This post is the fourth in Steve’s series about his Priorities.

I’ve been a member of our local Heritage Advisory Committee since before I became Councillor and I currently sit as the Chair of that committee. We have done a lot to promote the wonderful Heritage characteristics of our community – lots of posters and brochures available for those who would like some! That said, we absolutely need to find more ‘teeth‘ to protect our built Heritage features. One of our best avenues to achieving this protection is to designate Heritage Conservation Districts for appropriate areas in the County, and establishing an HCD for Downtown Paris is the very first on my Wish List.

Next on my Wish List is to put more focus on finding creative and effective ways to share the wonderful stories of the history of our great Town. In my role as Council Liaison to the Paris Museum and Historical Society – I am a big supporter of all they do – I have discussed with our Heritage Committee the benefits of creating more Heritage signposts around town (and the County) to tell more of the stories of the buildings, the people and the events that make this community so special. In an earlier post I shared a fun example of celebrating our local Heritage.

I feel that Learning, Celebrating and Preserving our Heritage is an essential ingredient to keeping the small town charm that we all value.