mike cluett

Yesterdays economic news was just as bad as the days before, maybe even worse.  Canada’s unemployment rate is now at 6.3% up from 6.2 in October.  The country had lost over 55,000 jobs with a majority of those being from Ontario’s manufacturing industry.  Companies seem to be lined up with the press releases on the numbers of jobs they have or will cut before the end of the year.

The BIG 3 are in the US begging for money and will soon be rattling their tin cans on the street corner here in Canada for their share of the “bailout” money that seems to be inevitable with the upcoming federal budget.

And then you hear stories like this….

And as the current expansion winds down, the Town is now in the midst of planning the second phase — a $23 million addition to the top of Town Hall in 2015 to cope with the demands of the growing municipality.

“This is just another kick,” Milton resident Bob Beyette complained of the imported glass wall. “With what’s going on in the world today…I’m not very happy.”

Beyette had appealed unsuccessfully to town council in early 2006 to postpone the current expansion, at the time the design was approved. Other residents complained at the time that a list of itemized costs for the expansion wasn’t available.

The Town’s director of community services, Jennifer Reynolds, said the English glass will serve as a structural wall to connect the historic Town Hall to its 50,000-square-foot addition.

“It’s a system that is unique to a few suppliers and that’s why it came from England,” said Reynolds.

“It was one of the design elements that the architects wished to use in the building — transparency and clarity related to democracy and local government and that kind of thing.”

Milton Mayor Gord Krantz acknowledged that some residents might find the imported glass wall “extravagant.” He noted residents had also expressed concern in the past about the extra costs associated with the stone facade on the new expansion, but that it was important for the new building to fit in with the historic structure.

“We could’ve put aluminum siding,” Krantz said.

Regional Councillor Colin Best, who had previously questioned the necessity of the current expansion, said the second phase of the expansion “doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

“You don’t see people adding additions to Queens Park,” he said.

The second phase of the Town Hall expansion was originally scheduled to start in 2013. However, the Town’s proposed 2009 budget, which will be discussed at a public council meeting Monday evening, reveals staff are recommending the 50,000-square-foot addition be pushed back until 2015.

Once the current expansion is completed in early 2009, staff working at another Town-owned building on Industrial Drive will be able to move into their new home. The two-phase expansion to the Town Hall has been designed to allow the majority of Town staff to work under one roof.

The expansions are necessary to accommodate the increasing amount of employees hired to help run the rapidly-expanding population of Milton, said staff.

About half of the expansion is paid for by capital provision reserves, money that came from developers as part of financial agreements made between the Town and developers during the Bristol and Sherwood secondary planning processes. The Town can’t put the full cost onto developers, however, as the Province’s Development Charges Act doesn’t require developers to pay the capital costs for expansion of municipal administration headquarters.

Tim Foran can be reached at tforan@miltoncanadianchampion.com

This is coupled with the Region of Halton’s recent announcement of their pay increase/tax increase.  Who will stop the madness.

Now before I get pigeonholed into a corner, I am one who beleives that we should expand Milton Town Hall.  The population of Milton has got to be over 80,000 by now and climbing and there are about 3 different buildings town staff work from around town.  I also agree that the Town Hall can be almost like a “crown jewel”  … the centre point from where everything comes  from … from the heart of Downtown Milton outwards.

I do however agreet that we can put the second phase on hold given the current economic environment we all find ourselves in.  It can always be finished at a later date.  Just as its happened in the past, a bad economy will get better.  The markets will rise again, companies will begin to hire again, and oil will go back up, the dollar will improve and people will buy houses again.  It does get better.

The timing is crucial because we are now faced with a global recession unlike those in the past.  We dont know if it will last only a year or two or three.  That part is totally unknown.

What I am confident is that it will get better.  Thats why I can say the phase 2 of the expansion can and should be put on hold and this million dollar wall decision has to be looked at in detail.  Who brought it forward?  Who on council approved such a lavish expense.  They cant use the excuse, well town staff recommended it and we approved it.  Thats not leadership.  Voters deserve better.  A lot better.

I dont know, it really doesnt make sense to me and you have to think to yourself, what where they thinking when they made that decision?

Didnt anyone on town council stand up and say “Excuse me?  A MILLION Dollars for a glass wall?”

I think we know the answer.