milton

Back in the arms of Milton

Mike Cluett

Vancouver is now up 3 games to 1 against the Dallas Stars and what could be the final game of the series on Thursday is coming up fast. If the Canucks win, they move on in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Whoo hoo!

There’s a Canada Day Committee meeting I have to attend Thursday night so I hope its over before the game starts.

It’s days like today that remind me why I love this town.

I’m out on the road most days as a sales representative visiting customers and doing a lot of driving. Most of my customers are in the GTA and Mississauga specifically.

There are many intersections in Mississauga that you need to be very careful in and some you almost need an increase in life insurance and a security detail to get you through. One of those intersections is Dixie and Shawson, just north of the 401. What a mess. HUNDREDS of trucks flying through, congested traffic and many near misses can be observed in just 5 minutes near this place. I had that opportunity because I was running low on gas and decided to use the Husky gas station on the corner.

The sun had just begun to start shining (finally eh?) and off came the overcoat. With the car in plain view I realized the ol’ PT needed a wash. This Husky location has a car wash so while paying for the gas I got a basic. That’s all fine. Go to line up for the wash and find a car parked in the lane with no driver. An older gentleman came running up saying he entered his code and the door wouldn’t open so we waited for the manager to come. And waited. And waited.

He finally came by and after a few visits inside to see if he was coming back out, I decided I didn’t want to bother waiting anymore. I went to the cashier to get a refund for the wash, and got my cash back, seeing how I wont be by this area for some time and I’m not going out of my way to come THERE for a car wash.

While waiting I noticed something interesting on the receipt that they were still charging 7% GST on the car washes. Doing some mental math and grabbing my ever present calculator, it confirmed that the GST charged is 7% instead of 6%. The Conservative government in Ottawa recently reduced the GST by 1% and this should have been fixed by the retailers MONTHS ago.

Needless to say, Ive sent an email to the head office to make sure this problem gets fixed right away.

I traveled along to Courtney Park Blvd to find my regular Tim Horton’s, grab a double double, and go home. I get into the drive through, which at this time was moving, made my order and slowly moved up. Three cars ahead of my someone had a problem with their Iced Cap and found time to debate the cashier on how bad it was and “chatted” with management, all the while holding up the line. After about 5 or 6 minutes of this, people behind us started honking and getting restless. I’m normally very patient with these things and I didn’t chime in. That’s not to say I didn’t feel TEMPTED! HAHA.

On my way back to Milton, knowing full well the 401 traffic would be nuts I made my way around to go home via Derry Road. Its normally a very good alternate route to get back into town. I was enjoying the breeze from the open windows and having the warm air flow through the normally closed up car when I approached “favourite” intersection number 2. Mississauga Road and Derry Road.

Here I find a large truck in the middle lane stopped, with signal lights first flashing right change of lane, then left. As it inched forward ever so slowly the vehicle in front of me was trying to find what lane the truck DIDNT want to get into. Finally the truck made his choice and went from the far left turn lane over 3 lanes of traffic to turn right onto Mississauga Road. The truck narrowly missed about 4 or 5 cars as they did this almost causing a few accidents behind them.

Just let me get home to Milton I thought to myself. Drove along Derry Road, up over the 407, through past Trafalger and the warm welcome view of the all the new homes and the 4 lanes of Derry Road. I feel very familiar with all these homes and the streets seeing how only a few months ago, I spent what felt like every waking moment knocking on the doors in the last municipal election campaign.

It may seem over dramatic and all but its nice to appreciate what we do have in Milton. Although some of the roads aren’t completed and we have to spend a few extra minutes in the backup along Thompson Road in the evenings or waiting for an advanced light on Laurier (which I understand is now working going north…going south I’m not too sure). But compared to where I was today, its heaven.

That’s just one of the reasons I love this town.

Go Canucks GO!

Mike Cluett

Well, its over. The Leafs won a must win game on Saturday night against the Canadiens in what can only be described as GAME 7 in the Stanley Cup final. Emotional roller coaster to say the least.

That leaves the other team Vancouver Canucks to help keep me rivited for the duration of the playoffs. With an amazing goaltender in Luongo and a motivated group of guys like Naslund, Sedin twins and more, it looks like it will be a good run.

Look out for Pittsburgh though as the “karma” seems to be with them after getting Gary Roberts (who the Leafs COULDVE had, but Im not bitter) and Larouque coupled with Mark Recchi to help protect Sid the Kid and Stall… they might actually make it far this year.

GO NUCKS GO!

Honouring a true icon

Mike Cluett

Last night the Milton Chamber of Commerce had its annual Community Awards Dinner and it gave out its Lifetime Achievement Award to Jim and Barbara Snow.

No blog entry can come close to documenting what Jim Snow has done not only for the town of Milton but for the province of Ontario. Here are just some recent high lights.

They had recently donated their famous “Snow farm” just outside Milton in Hornby to the Salvation Army. Just last summer we had a chance to attend a kids FUN Day put on by the KHI Community of the Salvation Army and it will be put to good use, to help children and their families in times of need. No matter what the Snow’s were doing, they were always thinking of others.

Further evidence to that is they have recently donated $500,000 to the CT Scanner for the Milton District Hospital. This was the largest single donation in the hospitals history. The CT scanner is much needed in Milton, and again they were thinking of others and the Town of Milton.

James Snow, as most people would know was the longest serving Minister of Transportation in the province of Ontario with his term lasting 9 years. He was elected under Premiere Robarts in 1967. He served as MPP for this area until 1985 when he chose not to run again.

For many people who drive along the 401 westward and eastward are familiar with the interchange of James Snow Parkway. This is just one tribute to a man who has served the public for many many years both in office and out of office. He is part of a family who is generous beyond comparison, always thinking of others before themselves and will no doubt leave a mark on our community for years to come.

Last night at the Chamber Dinner, both James and Barbara were honoured for their years of service to the public and their community with a Lifetime Achievement Award. I dont think Milton can thank them enough.

Milton Walk of Fame

Mike Cluett

milton logoWay back in 2005 we started planning the 150th anniversary celebrations for Milton. Hours and hours and hours of planning went into making this year one to remember. Lots of ideas were thrown around…thrown out…and made into a reality.

Milly the Millstone was one of those concepts that turned into reality. Through many of our discussions and meetings, an idea was put out there to honour and acknowledge the best of the best in Milton and create a Milton Walk of Fame.

The Town Hall is getting a new addition and what better place to put this Walk of Fame is at Town Hall. Plans are being made to build in a Walk of Fame section of the new addition, scheduled to be completed sometime in 2008.

How do we come up with our first list of inductees? We can go back to the hours and hours (and did I mention hours?) of planning again. Lots of help came from John Challinor and Jim Dills who came up with a preliminary list of candidates for the WOF.

Long story short the names are ready to be announced. We hope that there will be a lot of interest generated by Milton residents, new and long time, and I have a feeling there will be a lot of “AH HAAAA’s” from many people when they realize “THEY lived in Milton?”

The 150th group made their presentation last night to council and we’ll be announcing the list very soon. We were quite impressed with those who made the inaugural list and those that didnt make it THIS time, will get in the future.

Speaking of the council meeting there was quite a bit of discussion about the Trans Canada Power Plant, whos representatives made a information presentation to council. The power plant is located in Halton Hills, and Milton is what is called a “commenting” municipality.

Basically, we have a right to say things, they just dont have to listen to us really.

Rick started off the night with an emotional accounting of what happened to his family home recently and he publicly wanted to thank all members of the Milton Fire Department for their quick response and hard work and doing their best to try to save his father.

They talked about the Thompson Road reconstruction and lane widening (north of Derry to south of Main Street) and its apparent time frames. The underpass at the train line should be ready to go by the time James Snow Parkway is ready to go. Ya, me too. Im not holding my breath on that one ;).

So the list of inductees will be up soon. We at the 150th anniversary master committee will be contacting the winners and their family representatives to invite them to our more formal announcement on Canada Day at the Milton Fairgrounds.

We have a great day we are planning as well, so if you were ever to go to a Canada Day celebrations in Milton… its this year.

By Election in Milton

Mike Cluett

This past Monday, Milton Town Council decided that it would be better to have a by election for the vacant position in Ward 2. This means that some Milton residents will be going back to the polls, probably in June. The decision has to be ratified by council in March and the nomination date will follow shortly after that.

In case you haven’t heard, one of the council positions for Ward 2 was deemed vacant when Father Mark Curtis was appointed to the Justice of the Peace recently, which effectively ended his political career as town councillor. He was appointed by provincial Attorney General Michael Bryant and his position started immediately. Good luck Father Mark!

As I mentioned before in my last entry and to a number of people who emailed me, I wont be running for that position. I honestly feel that a person who represents a ward should understand that area and its concerns. While many of the issues we face on daily basis are similar, downtown Milton is very unique and it will take an experience hand, one who had or has lived there for many years, to do the job. While I am very flattered at being considered, I am not going to seek any elected office for Ward 2.

I am however very excited to see there are a number of others who will be vying for the council seat. And the names continue to pop up.

The front runner position HAS to go to former Ward 4 town councillor John Challinor, who grew up in that area and represented ward 2 for the years of 1991 and 1997. He has already thrown his hat into the race to fill the vacancy and you can find out more about him www.johnchallinor.ca

Other names being bandied about are Ron Furik, who lost to Colin Best for Regional Councillor Wards 2 & 4 by close to 20% of the vote back in November. Apparently hes announced already but if you go to his website the home page just says Announcement Coming and it hasn’t been updated since Feb 20th, so there is a bit of confusion to say the least.

Peter Haight, who came in third place by close to 600 votes is also another possibility but nothing official as his campaign site hasn’t been updated since the November election.

And after the council meeting on Monday, former ward one candidate (you might remember his name) Greg Nelson has decided again to run for council. He had lived in Ward 2 for sometime but in the last election ran in ward one against yours truly, Brian Penman and Rick Day. While he lived in ward 2 he ran in our ward because he “ran here in 2003 and had gotten to know a lot of the residents.” He ran in 2003 and 2006 running in third and fourth place respectively.

In that same Champion article, he said “its not about geography…its going to be an election of who can come up with ideas.”

I certainly hope that the candidates have already come up with these ideas, before deciding to run for council.

As it stands right now, it looks to be that John Challinor is definitely the front runner to replace Father Mark. Close behind him would be Ron Furik and Peter Haight.

This will make the summer a lot more interesting.

Nothing seems to work anymore

Mike Cluett

Like air pumps. On Sunday I was running around about to do some shopping when I noticed my front tire was low. I head on up to go to the beer store, return empties, and then go shopping when I realized my wallet was at home. On my way back I thought, Id get my tire filled up at the Petro Canada station on Ontario Street and Derry.

Out of order.

Thats ok, I thought. I’ll go across the street to Esso. Weaved through traffic and long left hand turns to finally get in. There were lots of cars in the lineup to go for a wash that day, despite the cold. When I got to the air pump, what did I find?

Out of order.

Long story short, I returned home, got my wallet, returned empty bottles, went to Sunoco and filled up my tires then went grocery shopping. End of story? Nope.

After going up all the aisles in A&P to make sure I didnt miss a thing (carefully checking the list Pat drafted for me earlier on) I head to the counter. While shes running everything through…

My wallet was in the car. Ran out to the car and ran back in to pay. I quickly returned home hoping that was my last errand of the day.

I hope the gas stations fix their pumps soon. Seems we all have to pay for them anyway (I know the money goes to charity and all)

Remember when air was free?

I do also want to address a number of emails I had from people regarding the newly vacated position on town council in Ward 2. In case you havent heard Father Mark Curtis was recently appointed to a position of Justice of the Peace. This position forces him to resign from public office, something of which I know he enjoyed very much as was dedicated to public service.

There was a recent article in the Halton Compass that named a few possibilities that might re-enter the fray and run for the vacated position. First of all, council has to decide whether or not to appoint or have a by-election. From what I hear it will be a by-election, seeing the fact its only been 2 months since the new council has been sworn in. (Has it really only been that long?…Seems longer)

In that Halton Compass article, it mentioned my name, among others, that could be considered “contenders” for that spot. To answer the question, I will not be running for that open seat.

I ran in the last election to represent Ward One and I have no interest in running to for the position in Ward Two.  I have spent all my time in Milton in the new area and I think the person that will represent that ward should know the area and be able to understand the issues facing it.

Thanks again to the people who sent me email asking me to get back into the fray, and try one more time. Its heartwarming to know that even after this amount of time, people still remember.

I’ll see you at the pumps! 🙂