Month: October 2009

Milton Walk of Fame Grand Opening

Mike Cluett

From www.milton.ca

The Walk of Fame honours Miltonian’s past and present who have earned significant national and international recognition through their enduring achievements.  Each Walk of Fame inductee is recognized in the glass corridor linking Town Hall west and Town Hall east.  The first 27 inductees will be recognized at this event.

Event to be held on Thursday October 29th at 7pm at Milton Town Hall

Was it really that long ago?  It seems like forever when the 150th Anniversary master committee started back in 2006 to come up with some ideas to commemorate Milton’s 150th anniversary.  I was honoured to be part of that committee and throughout 2007 there were a number of events to promote the town and celebrate such a substantial achievement as being 150 years old.

During that year we had the first street festival in the summer, which has now grown into an annual event.  There was also Milton’s Amazing Race, an idea born from and organized by the committee chair Karin Muller which received rave reviews as dozens of teams raced across Milton to answer questions, pick up clues and win prizes.

One of the definite highlights of my time on that committee was being part of the creation of the Milton Walk of Fame.  With the help of the Milton Historical Society and countless volunteers, we came up with a list of 27 people from Milton, who through the years reached a high level or national and or international success in their fields.  Many people are unaware that there are many famous Miltonians in different fields and the cream rose to the top with our first class in the Walk of Fame.

You can see the full list of inductees here .  Many of these people are well known, but their connection to Milton came as  a shock to many.  Mr Dressup,  Ernie Coombs was a big surprise to quite a few people along with Dr John Wallace, one of the cofounders of Blue Cross.  There are many Milton favourites such as Lt. Col. Chris Hadfield, PL Robertson, John Tonelli, Peter McDuffe and international wrestling icons Tiger Jeet Singh and his son Tiger Ali Singh.

These great Miltonians were announced at the Canada Day Celebrations of 2007  to quite the bit of fan fare in a day I wont soon forget.  Here is the brochure from the Canada Day event that lists each inductee and their bio of what made them the first members of Milton’s Walk of Fame.

So its not just me…

Mike Cluett

Someone sent me an email awhile back asking me why I keep on the fact that there seems to be a lot of poor drivers in town.  While I wont go so far as to say the drivers are poor, but there does seem to be people who for whatever reason, dont pay attention and obey the rules of the road.

That got me thinking…is it just me?  Am I being too picky?  Apparently not as more and more letters to the local paper seem to justify my analysis that there are people taking liberty with the rules of the road when it comes to stop signs, speeding in residential areas and aggressive driving.

John Airyo’s letter to the Champion this week seems to outline the same concerns I, as well as many other people in Milton share.

Here’s his letter.

DEAR EDITOR:There’s a growing trend in Milton that in my own opinion is gradually reaching a frightening dimension.

It concerns the way many people treat traffic stop signs. I can recall more than 15 times recently where drivers haven’t used traffic stop signs properly — with a few of them nearly causing an accident.

In all those cases, it happened that I got to the stop sign and stopped by the white line. My tire touched the white line and I made a complete stop. Then I went forward.

I knew I touched the line before some drivers, but they proceeded before me as if they were blind.

A couple of times I almost ran into those drivers because I had no inkling they were going to advance before me. I don’t know whether they were impatient, rude or simply inexperienced — or a combination of these.

These incidents have happened all over Milton, so I can’t really pinpoint a particular place.

Please use our traffic stop signs properly to avoid an accident.

JOHN ARIYO, MILTON

It’s not an unreasonable request is it?  The stop signs are there for a reason.  To safely control the flow of traffic and help keep drivers and pedestrians alike as safe as possible.  We can go back a couple of years to Yates Drive where a number of these problems lead to a house being hit by a car…twice…in less than a year.  A car driving down Yates at a high rate of speed (for the record a “high rate of speed” was perception based on cars driving the speed limit) drove through an intersection with a stop sign.  The person at the stop sign didnt fully stop and did what was described by witnesses as a fast, rolling stop turning left onto Yates.  The car with the right-away swerved to avoid the car coming from the stop sign, lost control, jumped the curb and sidewalk to slam into this persons home.

The second occurence happened almost identical with the result being the same less than a year later.

I’m sure youve seen it too.  On your way to work in the mornings, or coming home at nights many people take liberty with the rules of the road and most times, nothing ever happens.

A friend commented to me that there should be mandatory retesting for our licences on a regular basis to make sure we remember and comply with the rules of the road.  I dont think that would make much difference because anyone can put on good behaviour during the test, shine the like star that they are and when its securely in their hands…speed off  and fly through a stop sign on the way to make it to the 401 parking lot in the morning.