milton councillor mike cluett

Milton Good Neighbours Community Day May 5th 2012

Mike Cluett

Just a reminder that this coming Saturday is Milton Good Neighbours Community Day starting at 8AM sharp at Milton Town Hall.  There will be a breakfast for volunteers, you’ll receive your t-shirt and head off to your location.

From the Milton Good Neighbours Community Day Website

Looking to get involved? For twenty years, thousands of Miltonians have volunteered their time to help make Milton a great community in which to live.

The volunteers are recruited from the Town of Milton, with many coming from the three local Secondary Schools, and several youth organizations (Girl Guides, Scouts, Air Cadets, and many more). This year we look forward to the tremendous support from the community, both old and new residents of Milton.

With last year’s numbers, it is estimated that there will be in excess of 300 volunteers. It is quite the rewarding experience for the volunteers!

On Saturday May 5, 2012 at 8:00am, volunteers are to meet at Hugh Foster Hall (next to the Milton Town Hall) to register and obtain your task, pick up your supplies, and have an energizing complimentary breakfast.

High School students, your time spent volunteering with us can be counted towards your volunteer hours.

For more information, call Len Lee at (905) 875 4636 or register below. If you have any preferences as to where you would like to help out, please specify.

Here is a link to the contact page where you can register…or just give Len Lee a call right away.

Its a great day to get involved, volunteer and help someone out.  You can participate in park clean ups, roadside cleanups, or just help someone out who needs a hand.  Simple as that.

Hope to see you there.

MOCKTAIL Competition May 12th at Milton Mall

Mike Cluett

A number of my councillor collegues have entered into a MOCKTAIL Competition on Saturday May 12th, 2012 at the Milton Mall.

Yours truly along with Mayor Gord Krantz, Councillors Zeeshan Hamid, Rick Di Lorenzo, Greg Nelson, Colin Best and Cindy Lunau will be providing our best mocktails for your sampling pleasure and you end up voting for the best ones (HINT Cluett Cool-Aid) with proceeds going to the Salvation Army as part of a nationwide food bank promotion.  The way it works is simple.

You sample the Mocktails from our group (HINT Cluett Cool-Aid) and place a donation for the corresponding mix. (HINT Cluett Cool-Aid)  Then you mock the rest of the group and CHEER for Cluett Cool-Aid!  Well, dont mock them as its not their fault.

I’m kidding.  It will be a blast and hopefully we can raise some money for the Salvation Army and our local food bank in Milton.

NOW, Im sure you’re going to ask this.  What if I cant make it?  THAT’S EASY!!  You can make a donation at anytime before hand, just send me an email and I will come pick it up from you.  Its that simple.

Each vote costs $2.00 but you can donate as much as you want either that day or before hand.  The more the better as I want to make sure the rest of my friends around the council table know that Cluett Cool-Aid is the ONLY way to go.

Main Street Expansion To Be “Disruptive”

Mike Cluett

From Christina Commisso at the Milton Canadian Champion

Main St. to close for construction. Motorists are advised to expect delays and lane restrictions as construction on the Main Street underpass begins. Graham Paine/Canadian Champion

Milton drivers may be in for some traffic delays as the first two of five planned Main Street weekend closures get underway next month.

Monday town council approved the closures to accommodate construction work for the $49 million Main Street underpass.

Main Street East between Ontario Street and about 10 metres east of the CPR tracks will shut down at midnight Saturday, May 5 and reopen at 5 a.m. Monday, May 7 as construction crews remove the existing tracks and install temporary ones.

The intersection will close again the following weekend from midnight Saturday, May 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 14.

Three future road closures are anticipated for the underpass — which is Milton’s costliest infrastructure project — two in summer 2013 and one in 2014.

Engineering Director Paul Cripps said all closures will occur on weekends for the least impact on traffic, especially for those making their way to and from the Milton GO Station.

Detour routes north of the tracks are planned for Wilson Drive and Woodward Avenue and south of the tracks drivers will be redirected along Childs Drive and Lauier Avenue.

“This project will be very disruptive to Miltonians for some time,” said Mayor Gord Krantz. “But there’s never a good time to close a road like that. When it’s all finished people will ask, ‘Why didn’t you do it 100 years ago?’ They’re probably right, but there was no money to do it.”

Long-term lane restrictions on Main Street East began earlier this month with one lane in each direction and a shared turning lane between the Milton Mall entrance and Wilson Drive.

Construction is ongoing on the temporary mall parking lot at the Nipissing yard and temporary streetlights have been installed at the mall entrance and Wilson Drive.

The underpass is expected to be complete by fall 2015.

The Thompson Road underpass was officially opened in October 2008 following three years of construction and $28 million — which at the time was the Town’s most expensive capital project.

 

Report on Cell Tower Expected Soon

Mike Cluett

Looking at the upcoming reports listed on the Town of Milton website recently shows that there is a report on the Bell cell tower proposal at New Life Church is expected to be presented to the members of the Administration & Planning standing committee (of which I am a voting member) on May 14th.

There has been an exhaustive amount of information presented during this process.  If you remember back on March 1st, I was the first to point out this potential development in our area.  From that point on, I have done extensive research in this field and believe me, my eyes are bleary with the sheer number of reports out there, and talked with residents in the immediate and surrounding areas to get their views on the proposal.  You can also contact Halton MP Lisa Raitt’s office by going to http://www.lisaraittmp.com/?page_id=12 and sending in your comments & concerns.

The most vocal have been those who oppose the tower in our area, but I have discussed this with a number of residents who are in support of the tower and allowing the New Life Church to move forward with it.  I will be the first to admit there is a lot of information on both sides of this, and as I mentioned in a Champion article, this debate is very similar to the debate the Region of Halton recently had regarding fluoride in the water.  Emotions have been running high as the process moved forward.

I await the receipt of this report, as many residents in our wards are and as soon as its made available I will have a link to the report here.

So mark your calendars for May 14th at Milton Town Hall.  The meeting starts at 7pm and if you would like to speak on the report, you can register as a delegation for the meeting.  I will have all the information available when the report is ready.

Until then, I’ll see you at the doors.

Are We Prepared?

Mike Cluett

Today I had the opportunity to take part in an exercise at the Region of Halton.  A number of elected officials were invited to take part in an emergency management overview and test our skills on how to handle a real emergency.

Of course the emergency wasn’t real, but our reactions and skills were put to the test during a staged emergency event.

This was all in real time starting from the announcement of the event and laid out what the different departments would do, how it would handle the situations, demands, and communications to the public.  Needless to say we were overwhelmed and thank heavens it wasn’t real as there might have been zombies running around in Oakville and Burlington (Councillor Jeff Knoll would get that the most 🙂 )

From the beginning, our communication skills were put to the test.  Having to contact and communicate with so many departments, detailing information we’ve received and passing it along.  Of course things were missed by the elected folk, but in a real emergency, that couldn’t happen.  In a real emergency, if details are missed as to possible injuries or fatalities could result in chaos and even worse more lives could be lost. 

In the end we were all given a passing grade (and really would they fail US?) but many of us now understand the massive undertaking involved in getting so many departments of the region, local officials, emergency services and communications to the public up and running.  I have a new appreciation for the roles these individuals play and I am very thankful we have some very competent people handling things in the emergency management team.  Things have to be done with lightening speed with little or no room for error and I can honestly say that I feel much safer knowing how prepared this team is for any emergency it might face.

Thank you to the organizers of todays event as it was eye opening and humbling to say the least.

If you would like to know more about the Region of Halton’s Emergency Preparedness Campaign you can go to www.halton.ca/beprepared for info.  Its a good place for tips on how to prepare you and your family in case of an emergency.  There are some valuable tools and kits you can order to make sure you and your family can survive any emergency.

If youre on Twitter you can follow them www.twitter.com/bpreparedhalton for updates on information, events and tips on emergency preparedness.

Until then, I’ll see you at the doors.

Halton CAO “Too Soon To Predict”

Mike Cluett

Region of Halton CAO Pat Moyle presented a verbal report to Regional Council last week with an update on the Drummond Report and how it will affect the region and surrounding municipalities.

Christina Commisso from the Milton Canadian Champion wrote about the presentation as well.  Here is the link to the article. 

What I found to be quite telling were his comments (and I have been saying this for quite some time before being elected AND after) that municipalities need to live within their means and stick to their core business.  All the nickels and dimes we spend will eventually add up.  And with the proposals for cuts at the provincial level will eventually make their way down to the municipal level and the property tax base.

You can watch CAO Pat Moyle’s presentation at the Halton website here and it begins just before the 36 minute part.

Too soon to predict Drummond Report impact: CAO

With almost 30 per cent of the Region’s revenue coming from Queen’s Park, Halton’s CAO said the effects of Ontario’s austerity plan will be felt by all.

However, it’s still too soon to predict the degree of the impact in Halton, said Pat Moyle during Wednesday’s regional council meeting, where he quipped, “We are living in a post-Drummond world.”

Moyle provided councillors with an overview of findings from the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services — known as the Drummond Report — but said some of the 362 recommendations are too vague to determine what kind of financial impact they would have locally.

“Some of the recommendations have already been discounted,” said Moyle, pointing to the end of all-day kindergarten and delaying the uploading of social program costs from municipalities to the Province.

Moyle said about 80 of Drummond’s recommendations have a direct bearing on Halton.

“When the Province sneezes, we catch a cold,” he joked.

In the report, Moyle pointed to removing public health as a Regional responsibility. With the Region funding 35.5 per cent of public health initiatives, Moyle wrote, “It is critical that prior to implementing any actions with respect to public health service delivery or funding, that the Province reveal its implementation plan.”

A recommendation to integrate the Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Supports programs could, according to the report, increase caseloads in Halton from 2,000 to 9,000 annually.

Centralized bargaining for emergency services would also have a local impact as police services are bargained at the regional level and fire at the local level.

Other recommendations that if implemented will impact Halton include the consolidation of Ontario’s 80 hydro utilities along regional lines and re-evaluating the portion of slots revenue the OLG distributes to host municipalities.

Moyle said the Drummond report reveals some important lessons for all municipalities: governments must live within their means and stick to their core business, debt hurts credit ratings and it’s important to listen to the governments’ finance people.

“The lessons learned by Drummond are lessons that have applied in Halton for the long term,” said Moyle, adding, We could better withstand the shocks of Drummond.”