With all the concern and carry on about Kitchener and Waterloo merging, people have suddenly forgotten about any Regional merging. So it’s time for some “Did you know?”

Did you know that there are Deputy and Regional Fire Coordinators?  Each municipal term, Regional council appoints Fire Coordinators. Since 1992, the position of Regional Fire Coordinator has rotated each term among the Fire Chiefs of the various cities. This term, the Waterloo Fire Chief was the Regional Fire Coordinator and the Kitchener and Cambridge Chiefs were the Deputies. However, Chief deHooge has moved to be chief of Ottawa, so Chief Tim Beckett has taken over as Coordinator.

The Waterloo Regional Fire Coordinator plays an important role under the Emergency Plan and is a member of the Regional Emergency Control Group and the Regional Emergency Planning Advisory Committee.

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Another Regional request also came up at Tuesday’s meeting. As reported at the All Council Meeting, Fire, Police and Ambulance have been looking into improving emergency dispatch. EMS is presently run by the province and we are hoping they will soon come to the table.The issue? Should Waterloo Region have one emergency dispatch. It makes sense. Right now, 911 calls have to go through various layers to get to the proper police, ambulance or fire dispatch.  Council passed the recommendation of the Dispatch Model Working Group that the Fire dispatch of the cities be consolidated into one Fire Communications Centre co-located with the Police Communications Centre and that the Ambulance Communications Centre be co-located in the same facility. Enhanced Technology would also help dispatch.

Here is why the dispatches must be co-located.

Unfortunately, due to the extreme sensitivity of personal information stored in/and or accessed by the Police CAD, Federal law prohibits interconnection of Police CADs with other remotely located systems capable of accessing the Police CAD. Even if a common single CAD was acquired for useby all three agencies, a similar restriction would apply unless the centres were co-located.

 Cambridge voted against this. Do I need to say more on whether any amalgamation will come to be?

Here’s the link for the report

http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web/region.nsf/8ef02c0fded0c82a85256e590071a3ce/A37051130DB16EE4852576B3004E66AC/$file/PH-10-007.pdf?openelement

Here’s the address for roundabout education

Love or Hate the ad, at least it’s got people thinking about how they go through a roundabout

http://www.goroundabout.ca

Here it is. Love how the guys cross the roundabout at the end

http://www.youtube.com/v/oBqFgrVGzhI&hl

In the fall, the Regional Cycling Advisory Committee of which I am the Regional Council rep, went out and looked at Franklin Road. Franklin is a very busy road corridor in Cambridge. It will be upgraded to a four lane road (yes, I know it is already four lanes, bear with me here) with 11 roundabouts, some two lane roundabouts and some three lanes. This is between the 401 highway and Myers Road (2 lane between Champlain and Myers)

Obviously this busy road and the roundabouts are a concern for those using alternate transportation.  The committee looked at it and recommended having an mixed-use trail (3 metres) instead of sidewalks. Staff has made this their recommendation.

So pedestrians, disabled and cyclists will have a safer place to go along Franklin.  It’s a great step forward.

The downsides? Cyclists will have to dismount and cross at the roundabouts like pedestrians. Though the cars are supposed to yield for pedestrians. Bart Forwell suggested that staff look into the way cyclists are accomodated in Scandanavian countries with a separate lane at roundabouts. Staff are looking into it.

The second downside? When you get to the 401, it is almost impossible to cross to Hespeler unless you are a car. Cambridge is considering a temporary pedestrian bridge (steel span that can be moved when a permanent bridge is build by the MTO).

Here’s the press release about the Women’s Municipal Campaign School.

Women’s Municipal Campaign School Gives Women Insight of a Successful Campaign

WATERLOO REGION—Women can gain the insight for participating in Successful Campaign elections and learn how to build a successful campaign at the Women’s Municipal Campaign School on February 6, 2010, at the Kitchener City Hall Council Chambers. This all day workshop is for women interested in running for office or working on municipal campaigns. The school will cover topics including using social networking sites to reach votes, legal requirements and reasons for becoming involved.

Participants will have the opportunity to network with elected women, including the Honourable Kathleen Wynne, Minister of Transportation, featured as the Keynote Speaker for the School. Minister Wynne, before her election as an MPP, served as Public School Trustee in Toronto.  Kathleen established the Metro Parent Network, and was a founding member of Citizens for Local Democracy.

The Campaign School is facilitated by Kim Decker, executive director —YWCA of Cambridge. Decker says, “The first Campaign School in 2006, produced over 20 successful candidates.  In order for women to succeed in running for municipal office, they need to be prepared and supported”.

The Women’s Municipal Campaign School will provide information and practical ideas.  Notable past and present politicians, candidates and women considering running for office will be in attendance.

Tuition for the Campaign School is $15 ($5 for students), which covers registration, lunch and refreshments. More information and registration forms are available from www.learnhowtorun.com.

The Women’s Municipal Campaign School is the only non-partisan political action committee that works to elect women to School Boards and Municipal Governments in Waterloo Region

Media Contact: Kim Decker                     Jane Mitchell

Telephone: 519-650-0800                        Telephone: 519-886-9626

Email: k.decker@ywacambridge.ca  Email: janemitchell@rogers.com

Here’s the press release about the Women’s Municipal Campaign School.

Women’s Municipal Campaign School Gives Women Insight of a Successful Campaign

WATERLOO REGION—Women can gain the insight for participating in Successful Campaign elections and learn how to build a successful campaign at the Women’s Municipal Campaign School on February 6, 2010, at the Kitchener City Hall Council Chambers. This all day workshop is for women interested in running for office or working on municipal campaigns. The school will cover topics including using social networking sites to reach votes, legal requirements and reasons for becoming involved.

Participants will have the opportunity to network with elected women, including the Honourable Kathleen Wynne, Minister of Transportation, featured as the Keynote Speaker for the School. Minister Wynne, before her election as an MPP, served as Public School Trustee in Toronto.  Kathleen established the Metro Parent Network, and was a founding member of Citizens for Local Democracy.

The Campaign School is facilitated by Kim Decker, executive director —YWCA of Cambridge. Decker says, “The first Campaign School in 2006, produced over 20 successful candidates.  In order for women to succeed in running for municipal office, they need to be prepared and supported”.

The Women’s Municipal Campaign School will provide information and practical ideas.  Notable past and present politicians, candidates and women considering running for office will be in attendance.

Tuition for the Campaign School is $15 ($5 for students), which covers registration, lunch and refreshments. More information and registration forms are available from www.learnhowtorun.com.

The Women’s Municipal Campaign School is the only non-partisan political action committee that works to elect women to School Boards and Municipal Governments in Waterloo Region

Media Contact: Kim Decker                     Jane Mitchell

Telephone: 519-650-0800                        Telephone: 519-886-9626

Email: k.decker@ywacambridge.ca  Email: janemitchell@rogers.com

Thanks to Linda Zavarella for this link to a conference presentation about Roundabouts.

http://teachamerica.com/RAB08/RAB08WWRBelluz/index.htm

And the good news — There is a new roundabout dance commercial coming soon about lane changes!

Unfortunately, a woman in a wheelchair was killed on Victoria Street in Kitchener. People are concerned that there are no sidewalks on the stretch of Victoria Street near her motel home. This is a serious problem but I do want to bring up some points about this issue.

First of all, the Region of Waterloo only took over the building of sidewalks on Regional roads a year ago. Before that it was the city responsibility. Yup, a sneaky upload of responsibility to the Region took place without the Mayor of Cambridge noticing.

The cost of building sidewalks on all the regional roads in the region would be $15 million dollars. To add this to the budget in one year would be an increase of 5% on the regional tax base, an increase of $71.15 added to the average tax bill on top of the 37 dollars of this year’s tax bill. That of course wouldn’t fly.

That being said, lack of sidewalks is a serious problem. How could we solve it?

First of all, many Regional roads are rural roads that don’t generally have sidewalks. This leaves the sections where the cities have grown out into rural areas and no sidewalks are available.

One thing the Region is now doing is adding sidewalks to new projects. This of course is the same idea as for cycling (which is a giant step forward from when I was first on council and no bike lanes were being built at all or very few on regional roads)

But I believe that we need a plan to fill in the missing sections of sidewalk just as we now have a plan to fill in the missing sections of bike lanes. The missing sections must be found and a multi-year plan put in place. A multi-year plan that may take some funds from the sacred gas tax funds is something we must look at seriously. We must have a comprehensive plan, not one that looks only at roads. Compared to 2000 when I came on council, a huge amount has been put into road repair, as it should. I voted for more money for road repairs and building roads. But when is enough  enough?

I suggest that we start with the locations where we know people in wheelchairs or other disabled like the blind live then move to other urban locations missing sidewalks.

Snowplowing is a continuing problem for clearing cycling lanes. I should point out that motorized wheelchairs are considered a vehicle and must ride on the road, so clearing major roads to the edge of the road is a must.

And drivers! Watch out for reflective vests and pedestrians and bikes when you are driving. A pedestrian was recently killed at King and Conestoga Mall while crossing the street and there are sidewalks there.

Unfortunately, a woman in a wheelchair was killed on Victoria Street in Kitchener. People are concerned that there are no sidewalks on the stretch of Victoria Street near her motel home. This is a serious problem but I do want to bring up some points about this issue.

First of all, the Region of Waterloo only took over the building of sidewalks on Regional roads a year ago. Before that it was the city responsibility. Yup, a sneaky upload of responsibility to the Region took place without the Mayor of Cambridge noticing.

The cost of building sidewalks on all the regional roads in the region would be $15 million dollars. To add this to the budget in one year would be an increase of 5% on the regional tax base, an increase of $71.15 added to the average tax bill on top of the 37 dollars of this year’s tax bill. That of course wouldn’t fly.

That being said, lack of sidewalks is a serious problem. How could we solve it?

First of all, many Regional roads are rural roads that don’t generally have sidewalks. This leaves the sections where the cities have grown out into rural areas and no sidewalks are available.

One thing the Region is now doing is adding sidewalks to new projects. This of course is the same idea as for cycling (which is a giant step forward from when I was first on council and no bike lanes were being built at all or very few on regional roads)

But I believe that we need a plan to fill in the missing sections of sidewalk just as we now have a plan to fill in the missing sections of bike lanes. The missing sections must be found and a multi-year plan put in place. A multi-year plan that may take some funds from the sacred gas tax funds is something we must look at seriously. We must have a comprehensive plan, not one that looks only at roads. Compared to 2000 when I came on council, a huge amount has been put into road repair, as it should. I voted for more money for road repairs and building roads. But when is enough  enough?

I suggest that we start with the locations where we know people in wheelchairs or other disabled like the blind live then move to other urban locations missing sidewalks.

Snowplowing is a continuing problem for clearing cycling lanes. I should point out that motorized wheelchairs are considered a vehicle and must ride on the road, so clearing major roads to the edge of the road is a must.

And drivers! Watch out for reflective vests and pedestrians and bikes when you are driving. A pedestrian was recently killed at King and Conestoga Mall while crossing the street and there are sidewalks there.