Monday’s meeting allocated some time at the start of the meeting to recognize two amazing Orangeville residents…Ralph Harkies was recognized as Orangeville’s Senior of the Year and Molly Mullin was recognized as Orangeville’s Youth of the Year! Congratulations! I’d like to send out a big THANK YOU to both of them for all of the love and dedication they have given to Orangeville by giving back to the community in various ways! Thank you! People like you are what makes Orangeville such an amazing place!
Overnight Winter Parking over Christmas
As you may recall, last year was an exceptionally mild winter – with no snow in the forecast, it was decided that there would be a short amnesty from the winter parking regulations over the Christmas Holidays. This year, a number of residents have already sent letters in to the Town and the topic has been circulating over social media, requesting the same amnesty over the 2016 Christmas season. There was some discussion and some input from the Director of Public Works, Doug Jones and at the end of the discussion, Council chose to simply receive the correspondence. So as of now, there will be no lift to the overnight parking bylaw over Christmas. How do you feel about the winter parking issue?
Censorship of Orangeville’s Residents
In a previous post, I made you all aware of a concern that was voiced by Orangeville resident, Mark Whitcombe regarding a “kill switch” that is manned by the Mayor and when pressed will mute all microphones in Council Chambers with the exception of the Mayor’s. Mr. Whitcombe believes he was the victim of the switch being used by Mayor Williams when he was addressing Council at the November 8th Strategic Planning session. Mr. Whitcombe has requested that answers be given as to why the use of this switch is in the hands of an elected official and has posed the inquiry of whether the switch could instead be in control of the Town Clerk. When asked, the Clerk, Susan Greatrix said that if the switch were in her control, it would only be appropriate for her to activate it under Council’s direction. Mayor Williams had not publicly confirmed or denied Mr. Whitcombe’s allegation until a recent post on in a local Facebook group where he states: “side note: I’ve never used it. Councillor Kidd claims Adams used it to censor him last term, and I know Mary Rose says she used it for audio feedback issues. In my opinion the issue is dumb. Yes I have my ‘finger on the button’ in case things go wrong, but it won’t launch the nukes right? Know what I’m sayin’? #MountainsMolehills )”
The issue is being reviewed by town staff and they will come back with a report and perhaps some recommendations will come back with it.
FINALLY! A Crosswalk will be installed by Westside Secondary
Mr. Hollywood, the father of the Westside Secondary School student that was recently struck by a vehicle on Alder St while crossing in front of the school spoke up at Question Period to plead with Council to install a safe crossing for the hundreds of students that cross Alder St at Montgomery Rd every day. At the end of September, Philip McClosky, a teacher at Westside delivered a presentation to Council addressing the need for a crosswalk at Alder and Montgomery and also presented a petition signed by almost 600 students who agreed. At the September meeting, Council directed staff to look into options and come back with a report and recommendations. On Monday, the report came back to Council with a number of recommendations and Council voted in favour of a “Pedestrian Crossover” which will have all of the road markings plus an overhead post (similar to a traffic light in style), that will have lights to warn motorists of an upcoming crosswalk. The cost to install is approx. $25,000 and installation will likely take place in the spring.
Print Advertising
Council approved the continuation of publishing the weekly Town Page and other Town advertising in the Orangeville Citizen at the cost of $47,000 per year. In a fairly unorthodox presentation to Council, a member of the Orangeville Banner’s advertising sales team delivered a sales pitch to the members of Council suggesting that the Orangeville Banner be allowed to bid on this again and alluding that they could offer ‘more’ to the Town for $7200 less. When the Town changed over to The Orangeville Citizen after a tender in 2014, the cost to the The Town to continue with The Orangeville Banner would have at that time been almost double what they were offered by The Orangeville Citizen. So, until February 2018 for sure, you will continue to find the Town Page and other Town advertising in The Orangeville Citizen.
People of Orangeville
Have you all seen the ‘Humans of New York‘ website? It is honestly one of my faves! In the upcoming weeks, as part of In My Humble Opinions, I will be doing a weekly “People of Orangeville” feature. We live in such a AMAZING community and I am excited to be starting this project to shine some light on some of the awesome people that are around our Town!! So, here is where you come in! Is there someone you know in Orangeville who you think would be an awesome feature for this project? Someone who is an inspirational leader? A volunteer? A great nurse? An amazing business owner? Someone who you think has a super cool story to share? PLEASE – send me your suggestions! Send an email to inmyhumbleopinionsorangeville@gmail.com with your nominee’s name, contact info and why you think they would be a great feature in my blog!! I am SOOO Excited to get started!!
Next Council Meeting
Back on topic….the next Council Meeting will be held on Monday, December 12th at 7pm at Orangeville’s Town Hall! Hope to see you there!!