1.~toadei MÎkln ommunÎty rempaper since 1860 Former Town CAO Maria Belvedere shows his Citizen of the Vear Award. Gr am PiImlAnkd Wut Moi. Gromp (Fol..' o. htoeheIaIohotsg> Music Lessens 7op CM xam cors inON F ilà thP w foqw-uan. PUmsm Rjaee I ThItsa aili abou commnit foZlcaaar7wnnr By Julil. Slack CANADIAN CHAMPION STAFF Maria Beivedere credits the wanderful peo- pie around hlm for his success as the Town's former chief administrative officer - a job he held for more than 14 years. I prabably did not do as much as the mayor wants ta believe i dido' Belvedere laughed, when receiving his Milton Citizen of the Year Award at the Milton Chamber of Commerce 2013 Community Awards Gala. «I had a wanderful group of people a round me that did everything' Eight etchedi-glass awards were handed out ta Miltons longtime supporters and out- standing business people during the event at Granite Ridge Golf Club Friday night. The sold-out, black-tie evening featuredi a seafood buffet appetizer and full-course dinner. The largest crowd ever for the an- nual event watched video presentations on each award recipient, outiining their indi- vidual contributions. For Belvedere, his contributions are numer- ous, as he watched small-town Milton grow from a tiny community ta that of more than 1001000. I'd have a littie idea and l'd say ta Jennifer (Reynolds, the Town's cammunity services directar) 'let's see if we can build a town hall over there, and then maybe we can build a velodromne, maybe an arts centre taao he recalled. 'But the mayor dloesn't want to spend any money, s0 we've got ta get sponsors toa, 50 l'Il get that and you run the building part. »I said ta Paul <Cnipps, the Town's engineer- ing services director) 'we need ta buiid a raad ta the veladrame' and 1 figured we'd get $500,000 in spansars to build the road and that would be great," he added. «He came back with $3 millian in sponsQrship. " «It's amazing to me that yau give a chal- lenge to samebady and they do mare than yau thought,"' he said. «They deserve ail the credit - mare than me." Belvedere alsa credited the develapers in tawn, and shared a similar stary about the woodlats in tôwn. 'We told them, we want you to give us aid waadlats; wei guess what? - they did he said, adding the tawn has 15 natural wood- lots. «Milton's the anly city in the GTA that got the developers ta gîve us - for free - enviranmental woadiots and theyre ail iinked by trails. We asked themn ta give us trails to iink them. .. .what an amazing story" Similar staries were heard from ather award recipients throughaut the evening -MD Opinion .................. 6 .tLk ..........25 SpOlIS ................... CWa ..................... 38 mmB: 1àêMsr*mw Wh.iefl Mm"%Mi %ns W â e éuh< Sock0WhApýJs ci CD ka t