The province has given 300 million for rapid transit.

 Three things to remember as the Record notes the possible shortfall from the province.
1. I am sure staff is busy looking at plans and alternatives for council.
2. The feds have to put their amount in.
3. Regional councillors are not going to look kindly on any funny kind of money agreement like the RIM park financing. The accountants on staff (not to mention the accountants like Mayor Carl Zehr) are thankfully extremely prudent and conservative (small c)

 Further thoughts on LRT

Electric trains will be a lot quieter along King St. And people forget that roads and increasing lanes not only cut up a city but also increase noise and gridlock. Onlyhaving more roads  would cost the same and the dedicated bus 555 million. But most importantly in these times, this line will create approxitmately 35,000 permanent jobs around the stations.

Two statements that keep coming up.

The trains are going from mall to mall.  First, there is a certain amount of snobbery in people who use the word “mall” as if it was a bad thing. Secondly, the LRT stops at the universities, both downtowns, the RT park, hospital and King/Ottawa. Eventually it will go to Cambridge where, horrors, it may stop at a mall then onto historic Ainslie St.

The trains aren’t flexible like buses, the route can’t be changed.  There will always be transit in the central corridor. There is now with the number 7 buses and Ixpress  and there was in the deep past when I was a girl and took the bus and trolleys ran between Forwells and Rockway Center.  No need for flexibility when the main route will always exist and always be busy. Yup, Ixpress was busy on Monday morning even with the students gone for the summer.

Here is a comment from my cousin John in England about the LRT.

 Next Tuesday, May 18th, councillors will be hearing the public response to the Regional Transportation Master Plan. You can come either at 9 am for Planning and Works or at 7 pm for a public meeting.

There have already been public consultation meetings. I attended the meeting at First United Church.  I talked to several constituents. Two men were enthusiastic about the master plan including bike paths and pedestrian sidewalks. They also like that there will be an Ixpress along Fischer-Hallman.

The master plan includes integrated rapid transit and bus network and strategic road improvements. Types of streets are classified with different uses. All this can go forward with or without the LRT, though it would be better with the LRT (when will we see our money???)

http://www.movingforward2031.ca  for more details on the master plan.

A couple who live in Eastbridge talked about how hard it is to bicycle to the University as the bridge over the expressway isn’t bicycle friendly. Here I’ve been talking about the problems of bridges in Cambridge and here’s an example in my own Waterloo.  World O’ Cars indeed.

Tritag came to council to talk about an innovative idea for the Lang Tannery property. Lang would give the Region money to improve the transit and Lang would not demolish the old warehouses for a parking garage. The idea was referred to staff. The fact that this would involve the city, region and Lang Tannery working together in an innovative way, leads me to believe, sadly, that nothing will happen.

http://www.tritag.ca/blog/2010/04/14/win-win-win-solution-for-the-lang-tannery/ is the post about this issue. Keep the innovation coming guys, the bureaucracy changes slowly but it is changing.

 Next Tuesday, May 18th, councillors will be hearing the public response to the Regional Transportation Master Plan. You can come either at 9 am for Planning and Works or at 7 pm for a public meeting.

There have already been public consultation meetings. I attended the meeting at First United Church.  I talked to several constituents. Two men were enthusiastic about the master plan including bike paths and pedestrian sidewalks. They also like that there will be an Ixpress along Fischer-Hallman.

The master plan includes integrated rapid transit and bus network and strategic road improvements. Types of streets are classified with different uses. All this can go forward with or without the LRT, though it would be better with the LRT (when will we see our money???)

http://www.movingforward2031.ca  for more details on the master plan.

A couple who live in Eastbridge talked about how hard it is to bicycle to the University as the bridge over the expressway isn’t bicycle friendly. Here I’ve been talking about the problems of bridges in Cambridge and here’s an example in my own Waterloo.  World O’ Cars indeed.

Tritag came to council to talk about an innovative idea for the Lang Tannery property. Lang would give the Region money to improve the transit and Lang would not demolish the old warehouses for a parking garage. The idea was referred to staff. The fact that this would involve the city, region and Lang Tannery working together in an innovative way, leads me to believe, sadly, that nothing will happen.

http://www.tritag.ca/blog/2010/04/14/win-win-win-solution-for-the-lang-tannery/ is the post about this issue. Keep the innovation coming guys, the bureaucracy changes slowly but it is changing.

I was at Scott Witmer’s ward meeting and several constituents were worried about Carole Clinch’s claim that the Region of Waterloo is illegally adding flouride to the municipal water. I will give staff’s response in a moment.

First, the big article in the Chronicle about the flouride pumps breaking down and flouride not being added to the Waterloo Water for six months. Staff (Water and Public Health) was supposed to tell us about this when the problem passed 90 days.

This was all dealt with by council last November and hands were slapped. New communication protocols between Water Services and Public Health have been put in place to prevent this communication breakdown from happening again.

No secrets, no need for an access to information request for staff e-mails.

Once again, I point out that the Ministry of Enviroment closely checks Regional water and any problem with bacteria, etc. must be reported immediately to them. A fine for the only breach, a 48 hour pump of unchlorinated water into Cambridge water a few years ago.The problem has been fixed. The water itself was as pure as bottled water, but nevertheless. 

We actually had a report at Planning and Works this week about a survey and test of local private homeowner wells (people not getting muncipal water). About half had bacteria in them or nitrites.

http://bit.ly/dtu586

Anyway, here is the staff response to the illegality of flouride and the federal Ministry of Health.

Developing national drinking water guidelines with provincial and territorial drinking water authorities
Providing emergency advice in cases of drinking water contamination, when requested by another government department or agency
Developing guidelines for water used for recreational activities, such as lakes where people swim
Ensuring the safety of drinking water on cruise ships, airlines, passenger ferries, trains, and other common carriers
Working with other departments to make sure all federal government employees have access to safe drinking water in their workplaces
Working with First Nations communities south of 60 degrees parallel to ensure that drinking water quality monitoring programs are in place on their lands
Regulating the safety and quality of bottled water, prepackaged ice, and water used in food processing
Working in collaboration with partners and stakeholders on broader water quality issues, including the development of water policies and research priorities”

 Actually, the provisions of the Food and Drug act that cover bottled water are LESS stringent than the provincial regulations for municipal water.

Not saying how you should vote in the referendum, just trying to keep information correct.

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.

——————————————————————————–

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

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).

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.

Phoned my best friend this morning and she told me how great the latest Stephen King short story collection is.
Then she told me she got it at the LIBRARY! As a former librarian, I’ve been trying to get her there for years. She was worried because she might have had fines from years ago when she took her now grown sons!
She says to me: “And it’s free.”
Yeah!
In this recession, the library is the biggest bargain.
Because my friend is going each week with her aunt, she is hopeful that she won’t have fines now.
She was amazed at the bestsellers and the many audio CDs.
Of course Cambridge Public Libraries rock, it’s a known fact.