After a rocky year, the Greater Napanee BIA hopes to set its sights on a better future.
Last month, all but one BIA director resigned within the span of two days, leaving the fate of the Board uncertain.
The members who quit cited bullying, harassment and excessive yelling from people in the community as reasons for their departures.
“As a Board, we have been met with negative attitudes, yelling members and critics the entire way,” reads Michelle Edgar’s resignation note.
According to Napanee councillor Ellen Johnson, there have been 11 resignations from the Greater Napanee BIA in the past year. But now, the positions are filled, and Napanee officials hope that this shake-up will inspire some change in how the BIA operates.
“I’m sure that they will work their way through just the same as the others tried to do,” says Greater Napanee mayor Marg Isbester.
“I’m hoping that we don’t have to go down this road again, where people feel that they have been mistreated or harassed.”
While this could mean that the BIA is rounding the corner on its troubles, the question remains: What will the new Board of Directors do to ensure that these issues don’t tear apart this new group as they did to the last group?
“We’re just going to try and change the narrative and slow things down,” says Karie Biggley, the new chair of the BIA.
“We should be held to our governance, 100 per cent.”
First thing on the BIA’s to-do list is to balance the budget, which needs to be done by April. After that, the committee is hoping for a summer that will have at least some form of event slate, which is all dependent on the state of the pandemic at that time.
“We’re waiting for summer so that we can show everyone how beautiful our downtown is,” says Biggley.
“We hope that we’ll see more people walking downtown and down by the river.”
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