As you all know I have been busy with my Mother and her living arrangements. When her house is sold I will be back to my regular self and be more plugged into what is happening but in the mean time I am relying on others. The following is a copy of what was read out at the General Governmental Committee Meeting on February 1st. Read the rest of this entry »
Kim Dowds, vice president and communications chair (At least as of Sept 2009) for the Ajax-Pickering Conservative Association , is running.
Finally a new name!
Unlike a municipality that has an actual downtown where you park the car along the road and walk up and down on a sidewalk , we have large spread out plazas that have parking lots and spaces for our cars.
I am so fed up with people sitting idling their cars in fire routes , “just for a minute” . Read the rest of this entry »
here is a new link on the right side — Durham Region Election Blog. This is a partisan group that has an environmental focus.
I will link to them throughout the election period. They have questions for candidates and a link to each Municipality for candidate responses.
If you are interested in participating on a committee with them, you can contact them through the website.
Here are the 5.5 million details.
All the Mayors in the Region have declared, From the West, Dave Ryan in Pickering, Steve Parish in Ajax , Pat Perkins in Whitby , John Gray in Oshawa.
Adrian Foster has declared his candidacy in Clarington to run for Mayor, a former local Councillor.
I won’t pretend to say I have any knowledge of this area so I don’t know what the deal is or any behind the scenes goings on but it obviously has to do with the incinerator.
I will just say, if he believes in what he is doing , if he can look residents in the eye and declare that he feels the incinerator is what is best for the Municipality then be better get his papers in otherwise his opponents and the anti incinerator crowd are correct.
Even if he does not win then so be it but don’t be a chicken like that Miller guy in Toronto.
You can’t make tough decisions on behalf of your citizens then not face them to defend those choices.
So something is going on if you don’t see the incumbent Mayor’s name on the nomination list at this point in the process. Mary Novak is the incumbent Regional Councillor and she supported the incinerator, she has put her name on the ballot, Charlie Trim and has not yet , Local Councillor Robinson is running at the Regional Level now.
This race will be an important one to watch.
No one wants to run for council here ? No fire in anyone’s belly enough to get on that list the day the gates open ?????
What about the incumbents ? They are not even declaring they are running or not. Except for the Mayor slot.
What does this all mean ?
I know we are not Toronto but Pickering has some healthy activity , Whitby has less but some races are showing.
Come on Ajax , let’s get going.
I received an email from a fan of the blog asking me if I was going to cover the water rate issue.
What are the costs to have water ? People conserve and use less water yet we have to pay more for it because of this.
Before raising rates did they even do an audit to see where internally they could cut back on fixed costs?
The same issue is with our Veridian Hydro, conserve, pay more in rates to make up that shortfall in revenues.
Comments welcome.
It’s finally here! Today is the day that you can file your papers if you want to run for Municipal office in Ontario.
No one that I know of has declared here in Town, I was considering purchasing a condo in Toronto and throwing my hat into the ring but after careful consideration decided not to :) I just don’t have the time - or the money etc.
Election day is on my Birthday ! All I want is ………………..
There are two new categories set up , one for Ajax and a Toronto Watch for post commenting on the City race.
What are the issues here in Town ?
Taxes and Roads, I know.
The plan will be the same, I will contact all declared candidates as they put their name out and if they don’t know about the blog, will provide an introduction. I may or may not have preferred candidates but as far as I know right now, I have no personal friends running for office so I can be as impartial as possible but I am not promising anything at this point.
I was called today to read about this “new” development in the restoration project of the Church. Here is a link to the story on Metroland.
“Repairs will cost Ajax an extra $250,000 on a multi-million dollar project”
“Mayor Parish said although he’d rather the problem didn’t exist, there was no way it could have been foreseen.”
hmmmm , not so fast.
You read about the Church Window issue here last year. I had asked some questions to a member of the Church Community, here is a small excerpt.
1a)Would the Town have purchased the Church without windows?
This is a question that should be asked of the Town.
We do know that the historical designation of the building highlighted the Stained Glass windows and the Steeple. This designation was declared after our Steering Committee began the design process and made it publicly known that our intent was to take the Stained Glass with us. In fact, we made the commitment to our faith community that the Stained Glass windows would be used as a testament to our heritage.
We also investigated with our architect the possibility of retaining the bell tower, but it was cost prohibitive, and the consultant said that so much of the old brick work would have needed to be replaced that essentially it would become a replica of the original.
We were not surprised. Why is the Town saying they are surprised. They were told. Cost Prohibitive is relevant to the money you want to spend, what is prohibitive to you may not be to someone else , the Church was aware the brickwork in the steeple was so bad it would have to be rebuilt.
If an architect who did not actually get on a scaffold know , why didn’t the sole source architect the Town of Ajax hired know the steeple would have to be rebuilt ?
This happens in so many projects, a bid is made then later it is amended due to unforeseen costs.