ward 6 town of milton

McHappy Day In Milton A Success

Mike Cluett

WOW!  Thats all I have to say.  Thank you to everyone who took part in the McHappy Day in Milton on May 2nd. 

The McDonalds restaurant was packed from noon onwards.  I was privilegedto be a part of a wonderful event.  You might have seen me near the drive thru’s asking for your change and smiles. 🙂 Everyone was so generous in purchasing “boots” for the wall, balloons for the kids and simply taking your spare change and dollar bills and donating it to the cause. 

One of the McDonalds employees Mark shared some great information with me today:

Hey Mike, Just thought I would share some numbers with you from Yesterday’s McHappy Day here in Milton. We raised $8294.00 for the Milton District Hospital Foundation & Ronald McDonald House Hamilton!!! That blows away last year’s total by over $2700!! We sold the most Happy Meal’s out of any of the 1400 McDonald’s stores in Canada for the 3rd year in a row! Hopefully I will have a solid number for donations across Canada by mid afternoon!

Thanks again for your Support! Hope to see you around town!

That total is awesome and thanks to Mark for posting that on my Facebook Page.  (You can go there too, click LIKE and be informed of things that are going on in Milton that affect you.)

In addtion to myself, other local officials came out to help including Mayor Gord Krantz, Brian Penman, Greg Nelson, Rick Di Lorenzo, Arnold Huffman (and if Ive missed any Im sorry) as well as KISS 92.5FM Host (and local Miltonian) SCOTT FOX was there too.  Scotts a trooper as hes always on the end of my jokes because of his boyish good looks 🙂

Lets keep up the good work Milton and hope that next years total is over $10,000!!!!

 

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.

Upcoming Public Meetings

Mike Cluett

There are two upcoming public meetings on Monday March 19th as a part of our Administration & Planning meeting that residents in ward 6 would be interested in.

The first one is a potential development at the north west corner of Thompson Road and Louis St Laurent that would possibly bring in a Tim Horton’s restaurant along with drive thru across the street from the Metro Mall.

Here is a link to the public meeting notice.

I had an opportunity to meet with the person designing the development and I was very encouraged that the designs included lots of room for cars to enter without having any backup on the main roads (Thompson / LSL)  Its a situation that many drive thru’s run into…too many cars at busy points in the day lead to spillage on the roads and potential safety issues and traffic backups.

In addtion to a well designed parking lot with lots of spaces and room to move for vehicles, the outward design is also very nice.  Utilizing stone in the design keeps with the “escarpment feel” Many residents have commented that new development in Milton seems to be all over the place design wise and no continuity.  As soon as I can get the designs scanned in (likely when the agenda is available online – Thursday before the meeting) I can post it to show you.  It does look really nice, but I wont know until the final presentation is made.  This meeting is to ask for a zoning by law change to allow this future development.  There is still time before the site plans etc are to be presented.

Residents are invited to send submissions to council for that meeting either in writing or in person if they have any questions or concerns.  As always if you do have any questions you can email me mike@mikecluett.ca & I can bring them up.

The other public meeting to be held that night concerns zoning application at the corner of Hwy 25 and Louis St Laurent from Mattamy Corporation.  The link to that public notice is here.

That is a request to change the zoning to Future Development, which can lead to something similar at this location as the previous one, or something different.  The full details will be listed before the meeting so if you have any concerns, please let me know.

So what do you think?  A Tim Hortons is good for this location or not?  Do you think it will benefit the area or add to congestion?  Let me know mike@mikecluett.ca or feel free to leave a comment here.

 

Input Needed For Proposed Bell Cell Tower In Milton

Mike Cluett

UPDATE:  Many thanks to Angela for getting a hold of me with updated information as she wanted to ensure that the public is getting the information correctly….so thanks Angela 🙂

An application has been made by Altus Group Limited (on behalf of Bell Canada) to install a cell tower in Milton in front of New Life Church on Thompson Road near Clark Blvd.

The date of the application is February 28th and this starts the process for input from places like the Town of Milton.  I had originally posted the due date for submissions was March 20th, but that is wrong.  The notices havent been sent out to area residents as of yet but will be sent shortly.  There will be an opportunity to send in your input and in addition to that there WILL be a public meeting scheduled for a later date before the decision is made by Industry Canada. 

Its important to know that the Town of Milton is a commenting agent only.  The town will not be making the decision on this matter as it is under the jurisdiction of Industry Canada, which is the federal government.

Notices WILL Be sent out to homes in the area of 120 m radius of the proposed location which encompasses homes in both ward 7 and ward 6.

The tower will reach a height of 29.9 metres tall.

The proposal is for the installation of a cross style steel telecommunications mono-pole tower.

It will include:

  • Fenced mechanical compount 8 x 9 m (equipment shed dimensions 2.03 x 2.44 m)
  • Installation of buried hydro line and / or overhead hydro line
  • Installation of concrete filled bollards
  • Planting of spruce trees to surround compound.

 

If you do have any questions, please contact the following:

Angela Janzen, Planner – Policy

Town of Milton 150 Mary Street Milton ON L9T 6Z5

angela.janzen@milton.ca

Administration & Planning Standing Committee February 13 2012

Mike Cluett

This coming Monday night February 13, 2012 will be the Administration & Planning Standing Committee meeting at Town Hall starting at 7pm.

This Committee consists of five Councillors and the Mayor. Committee members review all reports, formulate policy and make recommendations to Council on matters over which Council has authority under the Municipal Act, the Planning Act and other legislation. Recommendations are made in the areas of corporate administration, personnel, legal issues, planning and finance.

The Administration and Planning Committee reviews the operating and capital budgets as well as various financial matters affecting the Town of Milton.

The agenda for the meeting can be found here.

Some of the highlites inlcude:

  • Public Meeting for zoning amendment for property owned by Zag Properties,
  • Public Meeting for zoning amendment for property owned by Victoria Hill Finance Group
  • Public Meeting for proposed condominium plan owned by Camcast Inc.
  • Technical report for proposed amendment of zoning bylaw for property owned by Durante Enterprises.

As always you can watch online on Monday night at 7pm.  If you have any questions or comments for any of these reports, please email me mike@mikecluett.ca

Snow Is Coming Friday!

Mike Cluett

For those of us in our shorts and t-shirts walking around the town these past few days, we are in for a shock.  Recent weather reports show that we are due for a return of old man winter this coming Friday with approximately 10 cms of snow.

Over the holidays there was a lot of confusion as to snow plowing on the streets in our ward.  While I was on vacation in Newfoundland for Christmas, I answered a number of emails from people concerned as to when their streets would be plowed.  I think it would be good to review the snow removal policies in advance of this potential storm.  Now, watch there be NO snow on Friday and I look silly.  But at least we will have the information available right?

Click on the map to enlarge it.  This is from the Town of Milton’s site and Ive just put up ward 6.  If you are outside ward 6 click here for the main map.  The streets in our area are classified for different priorities.

The primary or arterial roads (for example in our ward Thompson Road, Fourth Line, Derry Road, Britannia Road) are considered first priority and the plows are sent out based on accumulation.  For instance if we receive under 5 cms of snow or the conditions are icy, the response time will be within 2-3 hours.  If there is 5 to 30 cm of accumulation, the response time will be 2 to 4 hours.

A majority of the roads in our ward will be secondary / collector roads or urban / residential roads (Yellow and Blue on the map)

The response time for 5cms and below of accumulation is 4 to 5 hours and above 5cms is 4 to 10 hours for the secondary collector roads and 8 to 16 hours for many of the residential roads in ward 6.  If you live in a cul-de-sacs it will be a bit longer once the accumulation reaches over 5cms. 

The main priority of the snow plows is to keep the main streets and collector roads as bare as possible.  Its also very important for those residents who have sidewalks to keep them clear as quickly as possible during the snow fall and afterwards.

Here are some links for detailed information on our snow policy.  Just as a reminder to allow for the plow.  Try to keep your cars off the road as to allow for the snow plow to come by without creating issues with snow piles or potentially damaging any vehicles.

Town of Milton Snow Page

Road Plowing Response Times

Now the snow might not come as its being predicted by all of our very nice weather people 🙂 but in case it does here’s your handy page for information.

Now Im going to get my snow pants ready for Friday!

I’ll see you at the doors.