In what was described by Regional Councillor Colin Best as the highest attended levee, hundreds of people flowed into Milton’s Town Hall to be entertained by some amazing performances and served coffee, tea, and cupcakes by Milton’s Town Councillors.
You remember back in October, councillors were elected to serve the people of Milton…many didn’t think it was so literal.
Nine out of the eleven councillors (two couldn’t make it unfortunately being out of town on family holidays) did their very best in hosting this years Mayor’s New Years Levee at Town Hall. This event has always been put on by the Milton Historical Society and they did enjoy being on the other side of the event this year. Many people were amazed at how us councillors were able to serve up these great snacks.
I can tell you from personal experience, although tiring, everyone of us enjoyed doing it. I was even joking with the other councillors that we could almost form a company and set up a side business in catering 🙂 (Yes we ARE kidding)
It was great to see so many faces, young and old, at the levee (quite a few from Ward 6 as well) and answering questions and exchanging some holiday cheer. In the Milton Room (the West Wing of Town Hall) there was a presentation on upcoming projects that the town is involved with. I know for certain Councillors Colin Best and Cindy Lunau were quite busy getting people up to speed on how Milton will change in the coming years.
There was no shortage of entertainment in the lobby as well. The Milton Seniors “Song Spinners” were a huge hit with the crowd with holiday songs and many in attendance sang along. “A Capella Showcase” started off the afternoon with renditions of some traditional carols and it was a great way to celebrate a fantastic day.
This event couldn’t have been pulled off without the efforts of Councillor Cindy Lunau. Many thanks goes to her for coming up with the idea and getting us all organized and ready to serve. Other thanks goes to our gracious sponsors (I hope I get them all) Troy’s Diner, Tim Horton’s, Flour Girls – great cupcakes – & La Rose Bakery for their treats.
I can honestly say that council members are really looking forward to doing this again. It definitely adds a personal touch and really exemplifies what a levee is all about…meeting members of council and socializing with fellow residents.
Happy New Year everyone and thanks for coming out.
As at 1300 hours, Union Gas advises that approximately 400 homes have service restored. They hope to have the remainder completed this afternoon.
815AM UPDATE
Just received a call from Hawthorne Village PS and school classes are on for today despite the fire damage and Union Gas workers across the street.
745AM UPDATE
It looks like half the homes have been brought back online throughout the night by Union Gas workers. Many of you have emailed me around 2 or 3 AM saying that they were there…wow thats amazing. Union Gas stated this morning they are looking at getting everyone back up by later on this morning. If someone can stay home today as they go around or if you can have a neighbour with your key it could speed things up. If not, they will leave a contact number and as soon as you get home … call and they will have someone out very soon.
Again, I will try to find out how we can help this family out because I along with other people have been blown away by the tweets, emails and phone calls of concern and support fo this family, especially at this time of year. I was just on air with Scott Fox from Z1035 Morning Show (click HERE for the interview)and HE’S been called as well by hundreds of people on how they can help out. THIS is why Milton is the best place in the world! Updates will be coming soon.
1149PM UPDATE
Some gas services have been restored for homes in the affected area. I was at the warming centre at EC Drury earlier this evening and spoke with the represetnatives at Union Gas. The number of homes affected are approximately 500, instead of the originally reported 1200. They are running into some delays due to water in the pipelines that has to be removed.
Ive asked them to send me updates as the process goes and I’ll do my best to update this site as it comes in.
I spoke with Regional Chair Gary Carr (who is at the warming station as we speak) and he updated me that the union gas worker who was injured suffered second degree burns to his face and is at Milton Hospital with family. Everything looks good so far.
I also wanted to say big thanks to other Milton Councillors who came out to the warming station to lend a hand. Regional Councillor Colin Best, Ward 2 Councillor Greg Nelson and Ward 8 Councillor Zeeshan Hamid. We have a great team and this just proves it more.
AGAIN…there is a warming centre at EC Drury set up for people with no heat and they will put families up at the Best Western overnight so please, if you are at home and its cold especially with small children, head out to that area. Union Gas is doing what they can to get people up and running and it might be by the early hours of the morning before all service is restored.
Stay tuned!
806PM UPDATE
Ive uploaded CHCH News coverage of todays events. They were there on the scene and did extensive coverage of today’s fire and have an interview with the home owner as well. Great Job CHCH News.
Regarding homes that are currently in the process of having their gas turned off, PLEASE NOTE that there is a warming centre at EC Drury School on Ontario Street. It will get cold tonight and if youre by yourself, or dont think you can stay warm PLEASE go to the warming centre. Better safe than sorry.
More updates to come.
737PM UPDATE
For some more information on today’s events go to MILTONSEARCH.COM and their coverage of the fire. Between tweets of todays events, phone calls from obviously stressed out and scared residents in Ward 6, its been a busy day. Many people have been asking how they can help this family out. From what Ive been told by Councillor Colin Best is that the Red Cross has been called in and taking care of the immediate needs of the family. I should have more information tomorrow on how you can help out.
From the last news release I’ve received Mayor Gord Krantz is still on the scene from about 630PM onwards reviewing the progress. Thanks to everyone who tweeted, re-tweeted updates from myself and others on the scene and for your generous inquiries to help people out. THIS is what makes Milton the best place in the world.
Say a prayer for the family involved and I will have some more information tomorrow.
721PM UPDATE
NEWS RELEASE
December 15, 2010
Structural fire contained in Milton’s Beaty neighbourhood
On Wednesday, December 15, 2010 at approximately 2:30 p.m., a structural fire occurred at the intersection of Clark Avenue and Bennett Blvd in Milton. The fire is suspected to have been caused by damage to a natural gas line.
The fire has now been extinguished by the Milton Fire Department, and the area is safe for residents.
Three of nine interconnected townhomes at the intersection of Clark and Bennett have been affected by the fire. Approximately 10 to 20 homes in the area were evacuated.
Non-life threatening injuries were sustained by one Union Gas worker, who is currently in hospital.
As part of the repair process, natural gas service to approximately 500 customers in the area may be temporarily interrupted. The natural gas supply has been shut off to the affected residential area of Yates Blvd to the north, Thompson Road to the west, Clark Blvd to the south and Bennett and McDowell Avenues to the east.
Please note that Union Gas representatives will need to enter affected homes and businesses to safely turn on all natural gas appliances and equipment. Union Gas employees or their representatives showing proper identification will be going door-to-door to do this. If residents cannot be at home, please consider leaving a key and access instructions with a neighbour.
In the unlikely event that your home has no heat and you do not have friends or family nearby to visit, Halton Region has opened a warming centre in the auditorium of E.C. Drury High School at 215 Ontario Street South in Milton. The centre will be open as long as needed. Families are advised to bring books, activities, etc., to keep children entertained during their time at the centre. No pets will be allowed in the warming centre.
Please ensure at least one member of your household remains at home as Union Gas representatives need to turn on all natural gas appliances and equipment in affected homes in order to restore gas service.
For continued updates, contact 311 or visit www.milton.ca until the situation has been resolved. For Union Gas customer service, call 1-877-969-0999.
– 30 –
For further information, please contact: On Duty Staff Sergeant
Halton Regional Police Service
905-825-4777 ext. 2400
Last nights council meeting had it all. Expectations were running high by some members of council that it could either be a very short meeting or a very long meeting.
I had reported before that council salaries would be discussed at this meeting but apparently it went through on consent items and didn’t even make a blip on the radar.
Ward 3 councillor Cindy Lunau had a notice of motion to include a quick presentation by Halton Healthcare Services to Milton Town Council to give them an update on Milton District Hospital and its possible expansion.
John Oliver from Halton Healthcare made a presentation outlining the fact that expansion of the Milton DH is essential and must happen. The provincial government has put a freeze on capital projects and will be reviewing them for the 2011 budget. He made it very clear that Milton needs to be on the radar and get approval fast. Even if they were given the green light today, it would be at least 2-5 years before anything will happen.
Regional Councillor Colin Best was frustrated with the process, as all councillors are, and with the fact the provincial government KNOWS Milton is growing but is doing nothing to help out. We are being mandated to grow our population and size but yet have a hospital that is well under the required size for our community. Mayor Krantz also shared in that frustration as well.
He said that more work is needed and the community and council need to get behind this full force.
Councillor Lunau also put forward a notice of motion for staff to review possible ways for Milton Town Council to fund expansion, as if it were to happen, the local level of government would be required to put money forward. Council’s idea is to start saving soon for that eventuality.
The problem council faces is where do you start? And how much do we save for? John Oliver couldn’t give us a number, although pressed by Councillor Paul Scherer a few times, as legally he could not give a number. Council was advised to review other area municipalities and what their costs were as a starting point.
These possible funding options include, but are not limited to:
Increase of Development Charges; Special Tax Levy on Milton taxpayers to go to a dedicated hospital expansion fund only to be used for that purpose; Combination of the two. Another possibility is using the GTA funding poll that has been collected from Milton taxpayers to support Toronto (don’t get us started on that) and now is no longer needed as another source of funding.
Needless to say, this will be something that will require community support like we havent seen before. Last year, 35,000 people came to the table and to go forward we will need more!
There were some other discussions last night about parking on Queen Street, which is not allowed. Councillor Greg Nelson failed in his attempt to put forward a motion to reopen the discussion to allow parking on either one side or both. But after a very convincing presentation by the Milton Fire Chief, which included pictures of the street with one emergency vehicle and how it would impede traffic and cause a safety issue, it was voted down and parking on Queen Street will not be allowed.
And of course, the highly anticipated motion from Ward One Councillor Rick Day was ruled out of order. Im not going to get into it here, but if you wanted to read what he was going to talk about, here is a link to his proposed notice of motion.
I also experimented with live Tweets from the council meeting last night. Judging from some of your emails and comments to those posts, it was pretty successful. I will try for future meetings to post updates via Twitter, which of course you can keep track by going to www.twitter.com/mike_cluettor follow here on the home of the Mike Cluett.
As always I welcome your emails and comments so keep them coming. Until then, I’ll see you at the doors.
That was the comment I heard most last night at the special council meeting at Town Hall.
The meeting started early yesterday and I missed the first portion of the towns report on the potential changes to the official plan. That in itself is a large post and I will endeavour to get that up as soon as possible. You can find information on the official plan from the town’s website here.
The second portion of the meeting was the towns report on the Boyne Survey. Again, a lengthy post and I will come out with more details soon. Here is the link to the town’s site for more information.
The item that quite frankly, I thought would be lost in the shuffle was a report from staff on the application for market adjustments in pay for non union town employees. This category includes town council and if it had passed as written, it would have been the fourth salary increase in four years for town council. Members of town council are included in this category and according to Mayor Krantz last night, they are caught in a “lose-lose” situation.
You would’ve had to be under a rock for the last 2 years to NOT notice our economy wasn’t doing so well. Many people have lost their jobs, and companies were closing their doors including major employers in Milton. Yet through all of the cut backs and job loses, one industry managed to make MORE money over these 3 years. The public sector.
Milton CAO Mario Belvedere outlined to the gallery and to council last night the methodology of how these pay increases come about. A citizens committee reviews the salaries and benefits of similar sized cities and towns in the GTA (when you look the report in detail you will see exactly which ones) and then comes up with an increase for Milton. Some of these municipalities have increased the salaries of non union employees by over 3 % and some a little lower, so Milton chose 2%.
The idea behind it is employee retention. The fear of someone quitting the town of Milton and going to work for Ajax or Mississauga is so strong they want to ensure they are paid well to keep the quality of workforce here in town. Don’t get me wrong…I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
The staff at the Town of Milton is top notch and probably the best at what they do.
In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say they should be paid more for what they do. Unfortunately we are faced with something called an economic reality…the bottom line.
There are those who feel that council members should be paid more for what they do. Most of them being members of council. The job of town councillor (of which I am running for) is a part time position but I am under no illusion that it will be part time hours. My eyes are WIDE open on this. Dealing with the public, going out to events, answering emails and phone calls takes time. I work full time, as most council members do, and that keeps me busy. My two children and wife will also keep me busy, but they understand what I’m doing and are fully supportive.
Town councillors in Milton are among the lowest paid elected officials in Ontario. Should they get more? Possibly. Can we do it now? Quite frankly, no.
Again, its that nagging little thing called the bottom line that SHOULD stop a lot of spending like this.
Councillor Greg Nelson put forward a motion to pass the 2% increase for non union employees and exempt the increase for town councillors. This as you would assume caused a lot of discussion. Jan Mowbraysaid the increase was so small (according to her numbers it amounts to $43 / month) then why bother making the changes. My response would be, since its so small town councillors wont notice the difference.
Councillor Schau commented that she’s worried that given the lower than the average salary might deter some good candidates from running in the election. Candidates, like myself, should go into this with eyes wide open. I’m not looking to run for a part time position for the pay. That isn’t the motivator behind my candidacy. If it was then I should just quit. The salary for the town council position is roughly $27,000 per year (with some of that being tax free). If someone is running for this job for the salary….they’re running for the wrong reasons.
Its about leadership. Just imagine if a motion like this was put forward at the beginning of the term? What would our numbers be like if the 3% from 2008 and the 2.5% increase from 2009 were limited to say 0.75% or 1%? How much money would the town have been able to save? “Nickels and dimes”, as they have been described my some members of council over the years, add up. Would a limited pay increase caused a massive exodus to other towns and cities from staff workers? Highly unlikely. But the “nickels and dimes” would have added up to savings. Voters in town would have seen council take a leadership role and feel that the bottom line was being addressed. Only a few current council members actually take note of costs of items that pass every month. It should be the majority of council looking at the bottom line.
With people in the private sector having to deal with salary cut backs and no increases to their salaries, its hard for them to accept the almost automatic pay increases of public sector workers. This doesn’t help increase their confidence in elected officials. It’s just one of the factors behind record low voter turnouts the last several years.
As I left someone made an interesting comment saying that no one on council brought up the provincial governments recent freeze on public sector salaries (albeit the provinces “freeze” has more holes in it that a sponge). Discussion was had on the issue for about 10 minutes and eventually passed and will be finalized at the next council meeting. This means our current council has only had 3 pay increases in their last term instead of 4.
Regular readers of my blog will know I’ve talked about the other pay increases ad nauseum here and here.
There will be those who say the pay increase was small and wont amount to much, but for me its about leadership and confidence. My only issue with it, it took 3 years and the fact its an election year to finally bring it out.
Milton needs to elect leaders around the council and we have an opportunity on October 25th to do that. If you are one who believes it needs to change, it’s up to do get informed, ask questions and get out and vote. mike@mikecluett.ca if you have any questions.
In what was described by Regional Councillor Colin Best as the highest attended levee, hundreds of people flowed into Milton’s Town Hall to be entertained by some amazing performances and served coffee, tea, and cupcakes by Milton’s Town Councillors.
It was great to see so many faces, young and old, at the levee (quite a few from Ward 6 as well) and answering questions and exchanging some holiday cheer. In the Milton Room (the West Wing of Town Hall) there was a presentation on upcoming projects that the town is involved with. I know for certain Councillors Colin Best and Cindy Lunau were quite busy getting people up to speed on how Milton will change in the coming years.
