This past Tuesday evening at the Milton Fairgrounds, the Historical Society of Milton held the first of many all candidates meetings. There were a lot of interested people filling the seats which was close to an open house. At the front of the room sat over 25 candidates for office in Milton for the upcoming election, including yours truly.
On most peoples minds was the fate of St Pauls United Church, located in downtown Milton. There have been many news articles on the situation at St Pauls and it weighed heavily in the room. Designate or demolish? When someone thinks of the demolition of St Pauls, an image of a large piece of machinery sitting in Main Street with a large cement ball comes to mind. This isn’t the type of demolition that is being looked for by the congregation of St Pauls.
What do we do with other properties in Milton to protect them from similar fates? As a town, how do we help owners of heritage properties in order to preserve Milton’s historical integrity?
As I and many other candidates from the newer area of Milton talked about the importance of protecting and preserving our history and heritage properties, the candidates from the local area were called upon for questions ranging from the obvious topic of St Paul’s to the restoration of downtown Milton, the affects of the Conservation Halton legislation on the flood plains among others.
It was a good chance to see some of the other first time candidates in action and to see if they understood the importance of the issues or if they still have something to learn. The answers arent always easy and in some cases its not what people wanted to hear.
Here is a link to the recap of the meeting from Christina Commisso from the Milton Canadian Champion.
All in all I thought it was a productive meeting with much needed discussion about what to do. It shouldn’t take an election campaign for the town, the councillors and the parties involved to get working on a solution to move forward.
A quick campaign update for you. Over the last few days I have been working hard at talking to the residents of Ward 6 as well as keep up with the what seems to be the ever increasing demand for lawn signs. If you would like to show your support for Mike Cluett in this election, send me an email mike@mikecluett.ca or click on my CONTACT page to call me and I will have one put up as quickly as possible.
Until then, I’ll see you at the doors.