Milton
This weekend marks the first official weekend of the summer. For Miltonians for many years this means Strawberry Festival!
For 33 years running the Milton Hospital Auxiliary has been putting on this amazing event that never ceases to amaze. Lots of fresh strawberries, ice cream, smoothies … you name it, its there.
The festival is held at the Milton Fairgrounds and goes from 8AM to 4PM. Get there early for some strawberry shortcake and other goodies.
Public Input Session: Trails and Cycling Master Plan Update
The Town of Milton is developing an updated Trails and Cycling Master Plan. The revised plan will build upon the Town’s existing system of roads and trails, as well as consider those planned in and surrounding Milton.
Members of the public are invited to review the project’s progress and provide comments at a public input session:
Thursday, June 27, 2013, 6:30 – 8:30 pm at the Milton Sports Centre (Banquet Room), 605 Santa Maria Blvd., Milton.
For more information about this event, including a list of presentation topics and additional ways to get involved, visit the Trails and Cycling Master Plan Update page.
Attention residents in wards 7 & 8
The long awaited construction of the Derry Road underpass between Scott and Bronte Street will begin MONDAY JUNE 17th. There will be some headaches along the way but this is a project that should have been done years ago before all the growth on the west side of Milton began. There are and were a number of potential safety issues with fire and ambulance potentially being caught in traffic and when completed that issue wont be around anymore.
We ask for your patience during this time and its slated to be completed in late 2014. Heres the article from the Milton Canadian Champion.
Construction of the new four-lane underpass will include new on-road bike lanes and a multi-use pathway. The project is expected to be complete by the end of 2014.
Motorists are advised to expect delays and use caution when traveling through the area. A map of the affected roadway and project updates can be found on Halton Region’s website at www.halton.ca/construction
Its that time of year again. No, not just getting the lawnmowers out and warming up the BBQ’s. Its time to begin the process of providing input on the 2014 Town of Milton budget.
As readers of this blog know, this is an important part of the process and I urge all residents to contact me and the town with their opinions on the direction of the towns finances.
Its the beginning stages of this process and there will be more to come as the year moves on. As always, I will be having my public budget input sessions in the later part of the summer / early fall so please keep that in mind.
You can forward your comments as always to me directly mike@mikecluett.ca or through comments on this blog, or on social media as well. My Twitter handle is @Mike_Cluett so feel free to tweet this post, share it with your friends and colleagues and lets get the discussion going on what you would like to see or not see in the 2014 budget.
You can also go to this link to complete the Town’s official survey. It only takes a few minutes to answer so I would appreciate if you would take the opportunity to complete it and send me your thoughts as well. Too long? Too short? Better questions to ask? All feedback is good.
From the Town of Milton
Town of Milton seeks community input on 2014 budget
The Town of Milton is inviting members of the community to provide input into the programs, service levels and priorities for the 2014 Operating and Capital budgets.
The annual budget assigns financial resources to various municipal services, programs and infrastructure projects within the community and establishes the associated tax levy that is required to meet these needs. The budget is developed by staff within the guidelines approved by Council in July and takes into account input received from the public in person, by written submission and through an online survey. Council will deliberate and approve the 2014 budgets in December 2013.
A brief public input survey will be available on the Town’s website at www.milton.ca from Tuesday, May 28 to Friday, June 28, 2013. Residents and business owners are encouraged to complete the online survey to express their opinions of Milton’s municipal services. The results of the survey will provide information to staff for consideration in preparing the 2014 budgets, including satisfaction with levels of service, recommendations for new services or elimination of existing services, and level of support for property tax increases.
A presentation will be made at the beginning of the Council meeting on Monday, May 27 at 7 p.m. to introduce the 2014 budget process. The meeting takes place in Council Chambers, Milton Town Hall (West) at 150 Mary Street, Milton. Those wishing to provide input in person are required to register as a delegation by filling out a Delegate Request Form, available at the Town Clerk’s office (Town Hall West, 150 Mary Street, Milton, L9T 6Z5) or on the Town’s website, www.milton.ca. Completed forms must be submitted to the Town Clerk’s office or faxed to 905-876-5022 by 10 a.m. on May 27.
For more information, visit www.milton.ca or call 905-878-7252, ext. 2470.
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For further information, please contact:
Linda Leeds – Director, Corporate Services and Treasurer
905-878-7252, ext. 2142
Liliana Busnello – Communications Specialist
905-878-7252, ext. 2154
From the Town of Milton website:
We are seeking some input on the direction of the development of our trails and bike paths in the Town of Milton. In order to get as much information as possible, we want to hear from you. Please read the following from the Town website and send your information to them as soon as possible.
You can always comment here or email me Mike@MikeCluett.ca as well.
I’ll see you at the doors.
Trails and Cycling Master Plan Update
Share Your Feedback
Your input is important to the success of this study. The information you provide through this survey will be invaluable in shaping the recommendations that are developed from this study. The survey will be available to fill out for the duration of the study. Before you begin, please review the documents below that will be referred to in the survey. These documents will also be on display in Town facilities during the month of February.
Survey
Background Information
The Town undertakes a review of its Trails Master Plan every five years. In December 2012, the Town of Milton retained MMM Group to develop a Trails and Cycling Master Plan Update. The revised Master Plan will build upon the Town’s existing system of roads and trails, as well as consider those planned in and surrounding Milton. The recreational and commuter/utilitarian needs of the pedestrians, cyclists and trail users who enjoy this network will be studied. The work completed for this Master Plan will provide recommendations and strategic priorities for the Town to consider that aim to increase the connectivity within its trail and cycling network.
The overall goal of the study is to generate a Trails and Cycling Master Plan Update which directs the planning, construction, maintenance and communication of the Town’s trail and cycling network for the next five years. Its objectives include:
The study limit is the entire boundary of the Town of Milton, which includes the hamlets of Brookville, Campbellville and Moffat.
Current Trails Master Plan
The latest copy of the Trails Master Plan is available for downloading in separate sections; please be patient as these files will take a few extra minutes to download due to file size and you may temporarily see a blank screen during the file transfer.
Trails Master Plan Report
Trails Master Plan Maps
As many regular readers of my blog and Twitter account will know, I have been doing a lot of talking about The Big Move and its plans, or lack thereof, for Halton. Plans are currently underway for the province of Ontario to receive Metrolinx’s report in June that will recommend many different “revenue generating tools”, most commonly referred to as taxes, to pay for the over $50 Billion in transit growth in the GTHA.
I’ve clearly stated during this conversation that I feel the province needs to come to the table with some of its own funding ideas that don’t include tax increases, levies, or massive user fees. They’ve ignored those suggestions continually which has forced Halton Region and other levels of government to make their own decisions regarding the Big Move.
This past Wednesday, Halton Regional council unanimously endorsed a recommendation to the province of Ontario that if Halton’s needs for transit expansion (all day GO train service for Milton and Halton Hills) are not addressed in the current 15 year plan for the Big Move that council will consider putting the brakes on growth in the region.
Bold statement for sure. It’s a demand from the region that if the province won’t look after our needs and concerns for growth, and considering we are in the Places To Grow area that will see Milton end up with a population of over 300,000 or more in future years, then we have to make changes to OUR growth plan.
Is this a bit of posturing? Yes. Is it possible? Not really. Will it end up costing lots of money? You bet it will.
That’s a story for another day. The reason I bring all of this up is that during this meeting some comments were made by current Regional Councillor Tony Lambert that I found to be confusing to say the least.
If you’ve been following along with this debate on the Hawthorne Villager forum, you will know that Tony has been stating for a long time that he is opposing growth in Milton until the province meets “his” demands and those include the all-day GO train service for Milton and a new GO Station at Trafalgar and the 401.
He’s made statements that he when first elected to Milton council, was to “try to shut development down!” He was a bit confused as he did vote against 2 reports at our first meeting which was to receive information reports on Derry Green business park and the Boyne Survey and no decisions or plans were included.
And other comments like this:
“Like me or not, I am whom I am. I will take your money, but if you come against the people my face will be against you (no apologies). I will STILL win, on $0 of donations. Just watch.
If I cared less, I would be asleep. Brian, corporations do not determine who represents the voters of wards 1 6 7 and 8 in Milton, the PEOPLE do!”
He then made other comments about Derry Green Business park, which when completed with bring hundreds of jobs and businesses to Milton so that as a community, we wouldn’t have to rely on 401 and other major roads to get to work. In fact it might help increase transit ridership locally if we do. But he said he would try to stop it.
“Yes, Derry Green means local jobs but also more motorists and trucks. I will see if we look at shutting that down also.”
“So the delay I will be fighting for on future development unless the province changes their stance on Milton (and I hope their reading this), kicks in. Less new people/development = less local transit expansion/costs. So therefore, Mr./Mrs. Taxpayer is protected if I win and show the Government of Ontario to think twice. To not try to force 150,000 people in my 4 wards on top of the 100,000 people here, and not keep up transportation infrastructure (trains as an option). NO – NOT HAPPENING! “
So by these comments you can ascertain that Tony is against business growth in Milton that will mean jobs and more importantly revenue for the Town of Milton and the Region of Halton in the form of development charges and property taxes. He also supported the Milton transit expansion at the 2013 budget discussions and recently at Milton council meetings, but says he’s “protecting” tax payers.
All of this brings me to his comments at the Halton regional council meeting yesterday.
Here’s the partial transcript of his statement before the vote.
…if we don’t, perhaps build up our local areas more such as Milton Burlington and Halton and Georgetown and Oakville, we may have to look at more investments in improving infrastructure 20 years from now but we will be looking at future dollars and future billions of dollars so perhaps the province as they see the message we are giving them this morning, can perhaps look at instead of spending 10s of billions of dollars in widening the 401 which they probably will have to do but also look at building up businesses in local communities.”
So now he’s made mention of building up local areas for business in order to help alleviate the congestion on our roads and highways. More local jobs can lead to less cars on the road, more usage of transit and overall a better quality of life in Milton. And he is apparently against that. Or is he?
My question is this? Where does he stand on this? One day he mentions doing everything possible to stop all business growth in Milton and then another day states that growth of businesses locally is a good idea.
Confused? You’re not alone.