By Kevin Woodhouse
www.thesuburban.com
After serving the last four years as assistant director general for the city of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Martin Houde was recently appointed to the role of director-general. The Suburban spoke to Houde the day after the official announcement.
His first challenge will be “to reorganize the public works, municipal patrol and fire department to make them as efficient as possible,” said Houde.
This will involve a new communications system “that will allow access to the public works department 24/7.”
Other goals for the ever growing municipality will be to “improve our water filtration systems. We will start the upgrade and improvements to the system in the fall as we have to plan for the next 40 years.”
Vaudreuil-Dorion continues to attract young families who are first time home buyers. Houde noted that many new residents are from the West Island seeking reasonable home prices and a decent taxation. Because of the municipality’s expansion, “we have recently put in two arenas, a new skate park, our centre sportive and 10 water games throughout our territory.”
Further development in Vaudreuil-Dorion will include more transit-oriented development, since condos like the new Les Perles de la gare, adjacent to the city’s train station, are still in high demand. There is also more room for industry and with the coming of Ericsson, Houde expects more large scale companies to choose Vaudreuil-Dorion.
Highway 20 in Dorion will soon be re-adapted, possibly with the creation of an urban boulevard. Areabusinessownersandresidents will be part of the consultation process set to take place this September. An important overpass is being installed along St. Charles on Highway 40 to “increase fluidity of travel for our residents and businesses between the north and south of the city,” said Houde.
“We will soon be able to link Dorion and Vaudreuil by bike path,” said Houde, another initiative for the expanding municipality. “Vaudreuil is in a state of growth and our goal is to maintain efficient services for our residents.”
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