Vote…

I went to visit a friend in Beaverton last weekend and even I had forgotten they were in Durham Region , I thought they were in York Region . 

My friend told me that she stays on Durham Roads as long as possible before venturing into Kiwartha Lakes roads in the winter time.   Durham Roads are always well salted and clear , Kiwartha Lakes are not so well taken care of in winter.

Figured I would post this positive comment about roads in Durham Region.

With all the talk about having a directly elected Regional Chair we have to take the concerns of the North seriously and remember they are there  , like a Regional Chair is going to go door knocking in Beaverton ? 

Well he probably did not write it but it came from his email address. (more…)

I was copied in an email to the Mayor and our Regional Councillors, Scott Crawford and Colleen Jordan. Two bus routes are being eliminated and combined with other routes it seems. (more…)

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.

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.

This is in a comment below but I will put it in a new post. The notice was in my email at 2:32 this afternoon.

___________________________

Hi Karem - Here is the lastest for you and your readers.

NEWS FLASH - Region to hold TWO-DAY H1N1 vaccination clinic in Ajax

Clinic is only for priority individuals.

The Region will be holding an H1N1 vaccination clinic on Nov. 12 and 13 from 2 to 8 p.m. at the Ajax Community Centre, 75 Centennial Rd. for priority individuals only. The two-day clinic will be held in the HMS Ajax Room. Parking and entrance to the clinic are on the south side of the building.

Priority individuals include:

- people from six-months old to under 65-years old with chronic medical conditions;
- pregnant women;
- healthy children from six-months old to under five-years old;
- persons residing in remote and isolated settings or communities;
- health care workers; and
- household contacts and care providers of persons at high risk who cannot be immunized or who may not respond to vaccines.

The Region will notify residents of additional clinics as resources become available.

For more information on H1N1 influenza or influenza in general,

please visit
http://www.durham.ca/health.asp?nr=/departments/health/flu/fluIndex.htm&setFooter=
/includes/health/healthFooterDHCL.incor
call Durham Health Connection Line at 905-666-6241 or 1-800-841-2729.

Please see this new page

If you want to be involved with this, helping to find space or helping with the building of it or helping with the maintaining of a garden once it is built please contact me through the blog.

In order for the garden to be sustained over the long run, it must be housed on public land - ideal is central in Ajax and close to transit.

I emailed the Town today and it is Saturday so they really don’t know my plan yet, I did speak to Pat Brown on the phone due to the fact the park in question is in her ward.

If this location is not going to be available then it is on to Plan B, that land is publically owned also.

I was reading this piece in my favourite paper I was wondering why it was focusing on Durham so much at the halfway point through the article, then I continued reading it and was agreeing with much of what I read, after I completed reading the piece, I looked to see who wrote it.

I would like to see the area around the GO train station redeveloped to include condos, we have empty industrial land in that area and it just requires zoning changes and political will.

Whoever owns the empty, for quite sometime, Avery label place needs to look into this, it is just down the street from the GO station, it is a walkable distance.

It would be great to put a seniors residence right on top of the downtown plaza.

Ajax built from the centre of town outward and north, the centre needs serious attention and it is in the works slowly over time but radical shift in thoughts and ideas has to come to the surface.

We are not a small town anymore and we need to do what an Urban centre would do in terms of intensification.

We need employment in Ajax but are we going to get heavy duty manufacturing in downtown Ajax? I don’t think so. The employment lands will be home to business parks.

My grandmother moved out of her small house into a condo when I was a kid due to a Federal program that stated she could not sell her unit for 3 years, this was to keep speculators from buying them up and driving up the price, they were kept affordable that way.

Here is the information from the website.

This is another opportunity to learn about the incinerator that will burn our garbage and turn it into energy, then send the ash somewhere to be buried in another host community.

People from Ajax and Pickering should try to attend , the wind does blow west.

I hear Rick Johnson from Pickering is willing to have a carpool to get you there.

I have in an excel spreadsheet the 2008 Ontario Salary disclosure list and I am doing some research on it.

I actually have a positive first opinion — Ajax has the 2nd least amount of entries on this list.
The number of people on the Sunshine list for the each areas are :

Ajax 27 people have been paid $100,000 or more to do their job
Pickering: 64 People, don’t they have a population less then Ajax at the moment ?
Whitby: 40 - 2006 Population is according to Census is 111,184
Clarington is at 21 but they are a smaller in population, 77,820 in 2006 then Ajax, it seems a bit high to me then to have 21 people being paid over a $100,000 dollars. Only one of them is a Fire related position.
Durham Region has : 276 people with the majority 158 being in the Police Area of jobs.

If I lived in Pickering , I would be wanting to know why there are so many people at these high levels. What are the ceilings that the positions pay, in the private sector when you reach your position max it is cost of living increases only and if you want more money you either find a new job outside the company or you are promoted to a higher position within the company.

I guess in the Municipal world when they max out on public salaries they ———> Consult!

The Mayor of Toronto is(was) paid this- $163,016.64 base before any taxable benefits of $1,135.59
Roger Anderson is(was) paid this : $174,053.29 taxable benefits of $5,489.30

Why is the Region of Durham a higher paying job then the Mayor of Toronto ? Now that is something I would like to know.