milton town hall

More Construction Notices – Hydro One

Mike Cluett

The town of Milton received a notice from Hydro One about some upcoming constrcution to the transmission corridor along James Snow Parkway from Steeles to Main Street.  As you will read the construction will take a number of weeks with the goal of being finished by mid-May.

Reisdents will see helicoptors flying around and there will be some loud bangs from the use of implosive devices to fuse wires together…so dont be alarmed.  The notice I’m posting here will be sent to area residents and businesses, sent to the local papers, and local police & fire services.

Here is a link to the notice & a copy of the letter to residents/businesses.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Bruce to Milton Project Construction Activities

April 28, 2011

Dear Residents,

Hydro One would like to inform you about some upcoming construction activities in the Town of Milton associated with our Bruce to Milton Transmission Reinforcement Project. 

Over the next several weeks our contractor, Valard Construction, will be installing conductor (wire) on the Hydro One right-of-way east of James Snow Parkway, between Main Street and north of Steeles Ave (see map on reverse). In order to string conductor onto the new towers, helicopters will be used and will be required to make short stops at each tower.

In order to fuse the conductor together, our contractor will be using implosive devices. This process makes a loud banging sound similar to that of a firearm discharging, so please do not be alarmed when you hear it.

These activities are scheduled to begin on Saturday, April 30, and will continue periodically, throughout the area until mid May, 2011. Crews will be working seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. We expect several implosive connections will be made each day.

Hydro One will be notifying residents and businesses within one kilometre of the work sites.  In addition, we will be notifying nearby schools, local police, ambulance and fire departments to ensure they are aware of the work.

We apologize in advance for the noise and any inconvenience this work may cause.  We thank you for your patience while Hydro One and its contractor complete this critical 500 kilovolt transmission line that will add 3000 megawatts of transmission capability to Ontario’s grid.

If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Marty Dendekker, Construction

Contact Officer at (519)873-0331, or our Community Relations Line toll-free at

1-877-345-6799, or by email at Community.Relations@HydroOne.com.

****

Dear Mayor Krantz,

This weekend, Hydro One’s contractor Valard Construction will begin stringing the conductor (wire) along the new Bruce to Milton transmission towers in the Town of Milton.  The area affected is along the transmission corridor, east of James Snow Parkway and between Main Street and north of Steeles Avenue (see attached notice and map). We expect this work will be completed by mid May.

Helicopters will be used to install the new wires.  Following this, implosive devices will be used to fuse the wires together. These implosive devises make a loud bang, similar to a firearm discharging.  The attached notice will be distributed to homes and businesses in the area through the Milton Canadian Champion and Georgetown Independent, so people are aware of the process and won’t be alarmed if they hear the occasional bang. We have also notified local Police and Fire Services.

In addition, to string this section of line,  helicopters will need to fly over Highway 401 at James Snow Parkway tentatively this weekend and next (May 7 and 8).  As a precautionary measure, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) will slow down traffic on Highway 401 in the vicinity of James Snow Parkway to ensure that this work can be completed safely.  We expect there will be eight slow-downs of traffic over the two weekends for about 5 minutes each time.  The exact timing will be determined by Valard Construction and the OPP on site.

If weather conditions allow, this work could be completed in less time, and traffic slow downs may not be required on both weekends.  

Please do not hesitate to call me or Marylena Stea, Community Relations Officer at 416-345-5706 if you have any questions.

Regards,

Enza Cancilla
Manager, Public Affairs
Corporate Communications
Hydro One Networks

MCRC Fun Fair June 4th

Mike Cluett

One of the pleasures of my council job is to sit on the board of a number of organizations. Milton Community Resource Centre (MCRC) is one of them.

From the MCRC website:

Milton Community Resource Centre (MCRC) is a Not–for-profit, multi-service organization that provides services to children and families of Milton and the surrounding communities. Through our Ontario Early Years Centre and our Family Resource programs we provide early learning programs for children, their parents and caregivers at minimal or no cost to participants. MCRC’s parent resource library offers a variety resources and workshops including access to our parent educators.

Through our Licensed Child Care programs, MCRC provides quality early learning and care at an affordable cost and subsidy is available for eligible families. Collaboratively with Halton Region Children Services, MCRC operates The Halton Resource Connection, which provides training, support and resources to individuals and organizations working with children and youth.

This June 4th they will be holding their annual FUN FAIR day at Victoria Park (by Milton Town Hall) and they are looking for door prizes and silent auction items.  If you are a business owner or employee looking for a good organization to support and would like to donate some goods or services to the FUN FAIR day, please email me mike@mikecluett.ca

The FUN FAIR is held on the same day as the Downtown Milton Street Festival and Im sure there will be HUNDREDS of people attending and it will be a blast.  Bring your kids for a great morning of fun before the street festival starts. 

Thanks in advance everyone!

Milton Canadian Champion Covers Grow Milton Hospital

Mike Cluett

Citizens rally for Milton hospital expansion

(Photo Courtesy of Milton Canadian Champion, Graham Paine) – By Christina Commisso, Milton Canadian Champion

The signs are up, the signatures are in and the will is strong.

The time for Milton’s hospital expansion is now — that message was heard loud and clear Saturday morning.

About 30 people huddled under the gazebo at Victoria Park, sheltered against the rain and wind, to show their support for the expansion.

“We’re a small group, but we’re mighty,” said Halton MPP Ted Chudleigh.

He, along with citizen’s group Grow Milton Hospital, has collected more than 5,000 signatures of support for the expansion over a six-week campaign.

The petitions were delivered to Queen’s Park yesterday.

The urgency of the expansion was outlined by Milton District Hospital (MDH) surgeon Dr. Jeff Kolbasnik, who spoke during the morning event. 

“When I started (at MDH) we had lots of ward beds. Anytime I needed to admit a patient there was no issue. In the emergency department there would be a few people backed up, but routinely people would get seen within an hour. We never had surgery cancelled because no beds were available and getting a patient in urgently was no problem. Things have really changed.”

According to Kolbasnik, it’s not just the population spike that has placed mounting pressure on MDH; the infrastructure at the hospital is showing signs of deterioration.

He pointed to a leaky roof last summer that led to the evacuation of the medical surgical ward for almost a week. MDH recently received a “state of the art” surgical sterilization machine, which Kolbasnik said took a week to install because the hospital’s infrastructure was too old to support the new technology.

“During that week we had to ration surgical equipment…that’s not the sort of thing that should be happening in a growing community like ours.”

He continued, “As much as there’s a gradual deterioration, we’re worried we’re going to reach a breaking point when things just start to fall apart.”

Organizer and Ward 6 Councillor Mike Cluett took some time to dispel common rumors circulating about the MDH expansion.

Pointing to the new north Oakville hospital, Cluett said: “The Oakville hospital is designed for Oakville’s growth, not for other communities. We need a made-in-Milton hospital expansion for Milton’s needs now.”

Cluett added that he’s unfazed by naysayers.

“We’ve heard, ‘It’s great you’re doing this but it’s not going to make a difference.’ Well we’d rather go down swinging than not do anything at all. We want to let the provincial government know that it starts with them. Give us the go ahead, and we’ll figure the rest out.”

Playing MC for the event, Scott Fox of Z103.5 said when he moved to town seven years ago he would brag to his friends about the zero wait times at MDH.

“Now the tables have turned,” he said.

“All you have to do is look around at a town that’s bursting at the seams and a hospital that was built decades ago. The fact that people are waiting, they’re being sent to other communities for critical care, surgeries are being postponed because there’s not enough beds — this screams expansion.”

Chudleigh said he hopes the message comes through loud and clear at Queen’s Park. The petition was delivered mere weeks before the Province is expected to release its 10-year infrastructure list for high-priority projects.

Despite what transpires in the next few weeks, Cluett said the momentum for the expansion won’t slow down anytime soon.

“It doesn’t end today. It’s going to continue until the spade is in the ground and we have our hospital.”

Town Council Meeting April 18 2011

Mike Cluett

Tonight is a full meeting of council.  The agenda for the meeting can be found here.

There will be a presentation from the Halton Regional Police Services, a recommendation for the company eSolutions Group as the company in charge of the website for the Milton Centre for the Arts, and a 2010 financial update from KPMG .

I’ll also be providing council an update on the ward 6 Milton Makeover team from last Friday and the all important update of the Grow Milton Rally from Saturday, which despite the weather was a great success.

As always you can view the meeting online by going to the WATCH ONLINE link at the right.  Hope to “see” you there.  If you have any questions on the items included in the agenda, feel free to email me mike@mikecluett.ca

April 11th Administration & Planning Meeting

Mike Cluett

Here is a copy of the agenda for tonights Administration & Planning Committee Meeting at Town Hall starting at 7pm.

There is also a public meeting on a zoning by-law change for an area at Lower Base Line & RR 25 (Ontario St) for a possible cemetery/crematorium.

There are also 2 technical reports for properties in Nassagaweya (Covenenant Families) and a potential change to the Town of Milton official plan for land on 3074 Main Street West.

As always you can click on the links to the right “Watch ONLINE” and view the meeting via www.milton.ca

See you then!