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Friday, February 12, 2021 3 Brooklin Town Crier The Croxalls By Jennifer Hudgins If you live on Croxall Boulevard, you may wonder where the street name originated. Croxall's Building and Supply store was a prominent Brooklin business, owned and operated by three generations of Croxalls. It was located at 93 Winchester Street E. The Croxall family was not always in the building supply trade. As far back as 1846, when James (1826-1908) and his wife Martha (1838-1925) were farmers in Brooklin, the Croxalls figured in a number of community-based ventures. Their son William (1873-1950) was an active member of the United Farmers of Ontario. One of his jobs was to sort and pack local farmers' apples to ship to other countries. He became interested in the coal business and, with his wife Mary (1866-1920), bought the Charles Mackey coal yard on Anderson Street, south of the train station. For 70 years, William Croxall sold coal to local residents and businesses. Some Brooklin residents probably still have memories of coal being delivered to their homes, dumped from a truck onto a chute and through a basement window into a coal bin. William's son Edgar (1907-1968) and his wife Evelyn (1908-1997) joined the business in 1932. William retired a year later while Edgar continued operations, expanding to include a gravel pit with three trucks. When the train station grain elevator was demolished in 1950, Edgar used the land to construct coal and cement sheds with the wood. In 1956, Edgar and his son, Bill, bought the land where the train station had once stood and built their store. When coal was phased out for heating, Croxall converted one of the gravel trucks to hold furnace oil. Edgar drove the truck while Bill ran the store. When Edgar died, Bill (1931-1998) and his wife Doris (1934-1998) were left to operate the business until 1978 when they held an auction and sold the contents. The buildings and property were sold the next year. For a few years the building was used as a convenience store, but has been Michael Kelly's restaurant since 1994. The Croxalls are buried at Groveside Cemetery. Their house was designated a heritage building and was moved to Durham Street. Who pays for growth North Ward Councillor Steve Lee Growth is coming so we have to prepare and set aside money for it. Unfortunately though, growth doesn't cover the cost of growth. There are costs involved both to the town and residents. The Town collects Development Charges (DCs) from developers. However, provincial legislation limits how much can be paid for with the DCs we collect. The Province sets the rules that determine the limits and states that the added benefit to residents must be paid by existing residents. For example, we will all use new roads, parks and playgrounds, walkways, sport complexes, etc. Thus we should pay a portion of them. DC charges also cannot be used to fund the maintenance and repair of aging infrastructure nor replacement of it. They also can't be used to fund any operating costs involved. These must come from the tax base. The Town puts money into our asset management reserves to cover these repairs. So we need to be able to hire new staff to cover the services and infrastructure for the entire town for everything from snowplowing to facilities staff to engineering, and public works. Currently, in order to meet service delivery standards, we are behind in the number of full-time staff positions in the town of Whitby. A 2014 independent service delivery review indicated we need to hire, on average, 15 positions per year just to keep up with the growth and maintain services. Back then, we were also lean compared with other municipalities (see chart). We haven't maintained that average and we have said there will be no new positions in the 2021 budget in order to minimize the tax impact to residents in 2021. With the amount of growth and the expected size of the town, not hiring staff or putting aside money for growth is just not sustainable. We will need to be able to hire additional staff to handle the growth and keep service levels in place. Otherwise, residents will see a reduction in service levels. Full Time Staffing Complement (2014) per 1000 Households (taken from the KPMG Town of Whitby Service Delivery Review in 2016)