On Monday, Jan 7th, at the morning Special meeting of Community Services Committee the big topic of discussion was the planning consultant Monteith Brown's $45,000 Report titled: Rotary Park and Pool Feasibility Study See attachment 1 in the Report here CS-19-01.
The report recommended step 2 would be a $880,000 design study consisting of $636,800 for the design of the bathhouse; $93,000 for the design of the Splash pad and $150,000 for the design of the Playground:
The 3rd and final step would be the construction of those components as follows: Pool and bathhouse: $5,310,000 • Splashpad: $590,000 • Playground: $1,240,000 (note the estimate does not include the potential costs associated with storm water improvements to areas located along the Oshawa Creek)
Due to the high cost, the Commissioner of Community Services Ron Diskey agreed to arrange for Council members to inspect the bathhouse (change room and maintenance building) on Monday January 14th, before making a decision (although the committee seemed to be leaning on recommending going ahead with a new splash pad only).
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The 3rd and final step would be the construction of those components as follows: Pool and bathhouse: $5,310,000 • Splashpad: $590,000 • Playground: $1,240,000 (note the estimate does not include the potential costs associated with storm water improvements to areas located along the Oshawa Creek)
Due to the high cost, the Commissioner of Community Services Ron Diskey agreed to arrange for Council members to inspect the bathhouse (change room and maintenance building) on Monday January 14th, before making a decision (although the committee seemed to be leaning on recommending going ahead with a new splash pad only).
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Monday afternoon, was a 5 hour Special Finance Committee meeting with presentations from the City's External Agencies and those groups applying for Anchor and Partnership Grants. Oshawa is fortunate to have such involved citizens, with both the new and long-time groups providing beneficial programs and services to the City. All who made delegations were well spoken, with many showing an extraordinary high level of dedication and generosity to their cause.
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Monday evening was a Special Council meeting, short at just under 2 hours, compared with the morning and afternoon Special meetings.
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Monday evening was a Special Council meeting, short at just under 2 hours, compared with the morning and afternoon Special meetings.
Recently I was invited to speak in front of a Grade 10 class and discuss my new and old careers with students whose assignment was to conduct an overview of various occupations that might help them in determining their choices for future career plans.
8:30 Wednesday morning, Jan 9th, I was delighted to attend Maxwell Heights school and give a description of some of my duties and my take on a day-in-the-life description as their new Ward 1 City Councillor. Also, as requested, I compared the Councillor job to my previous career as a broker/owner of a local real estate company. The two young students who introduced me and following my talk, gave their impression of what I had shared with the class, impressed me greatly. They said they were touched most by my message of the requirement to be self-motivated and my advice to read at least one article a day about local news so they would be aware of what was going on in their community. Following my talk, Mayor Carter shared inspirational words with the same students about his many faceted career.
8:30 Wednesday morning, Jan 9th, I was delighted to attend Maxwell Heights school and give a description of some of my duties and my take on a day-in-the-life description as their new Ward 1 City Councillor. Also, as requested, I compared the Councillor job to my previous career as a broker/owner of a local real estate company. The two young students who introduced me and following my talk, gave their impression of what I had shared with the class, impressed me greatly. They said they were touched most by my message of the requirement to be self-motivated and my advice to read at least one article a day about local news so they would be aware of what was going on in their community. Following my talk, Mayor Carter shared inspirational words with the same students about his many faceted career.
Wednesday, January 9th afternoon was my first Built Accessibility Advisory Sub Committee meeting, I saw how hard working the members of this committee are and very much respect their dedication. They contributed over three hours of their time to review in detail six new plans of subdivision and give their consideration to how the plans comply with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. They do this on a regular monthly basis, and I look forward to joining them in the work! Here is an example of the checklist (just two pages of 11) showing the over 10 areas where certain criteria needs to be met:
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Thursday, January 10th, Special Council meeting re Cannabis - Vote to opt-in passed 7-4. Council Special meeting ended at 10:30 p.m. Council members voting yes to opt-in were Carter, Chapman, Giberson, Gray, Kerr, Marimpietri, Nicholson and members voting no were Hurst, Marks, McConkey, Neal.
As I wrote on my Facebook page: seems on social media and on my own thread there are a few poor winners. I have no disdain or disappointment for anyone disagreeing with my position. The choice was to take a stand on one side or the other of the issue of the timing for retail stores in Oshawa, when many other municipalities are clambering to have them, and many are holding back.
The vote was not, as some seem to want to claim, about being for or against cannabis. It is a legal, available and desired product..The issue simply came down to a question of timing for product sales from bricks and mortar vendors. Considering how I see many of this city's problems stem from poor planning, such as the student housing issue, Oshawa's harbour/waterfront problems, and problems with our downtown, I likely look at this issue from a different perspective.
I said at Council before the vote, in my experience, the prudent buyer steps away from a bidding war and waits for the dust to settle, preferring not to put in a bid with no house inspection or financing conditions. My vote, I believed, would give the City some benefit of learning from the experience of other municipalities, I did not see much merit in Oshawa taking a lead on this. And if this is an 'economic driver' I said I sure as heck hope we have a bigger, more real one on the horizon soon, because I don't get how a retail store, no matter how desirable its product can provide that big a boon to the local economy. Cannabis licenced producers yes, but how is a retail store really any more than a boon for the owners than a Macdonalds or Walmart is an economic driver?
Thanks go out to Councillor Nicholson for copying my post recording the meeting's vote results, I didn't realize when I wrote it when I got home after the meeting that I had posted it as a 'reply' above instead of the more visible the main thread where he copied it.
Of course I stand by my decision. Fyi, the Oshawa Express reported "McConkey said some of the benefits of cannabis and related-products are well known, but she wanted to make a “fair and reasoned decision.” She said “caution is important” in such a choice, and desired to wait and see how retail cannabis stores roll out in other municipalities. Furthermore, McConkey questioned how significant of an “economic driver” the cannabis industry would be for Oshawa, an argument made by a number of delegates to council during the evening in support of allowing stores.".
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Friday, January 11th, was an all day Special Council meeting re the 2019 Budget...details on that to follow...some good, some not so good... I will post more about it separately...soon. Meanwhile, note: this Tuesday January 15th 7:30 to 8:30 pm is the live on-line Question and Answer with the City's Commissioner of Finance Stephanie Sinnott. Submit your question here: www.connectoshawa.ca/budget2019?tool=qanda#tool_tab
or here https://www.connectoshawa.ca/budget2019
Further, note: this Thursday, Jan 17th starting at 6:30 in the Council Chamber is the Budget meeting for Public Engagement
As I wrote on my Facebook page: seems on social media and on my own thread there are a few poor winners. I have no disdain or disappointment for anyone disagreeing with my position. The choice was to take a stand on one side or the other of the issue of the timing for retail stores in Oshawa, when many other municipalities are clambering to have them, and many are holding back.
The vote was not, as some seem to want to claim, about being for or against cannabis. It is a legal, available and desired product..The issue simply came down to a question of timing for product sales from bricks and mortar vendors. Considering how I see many of this city's problems stem from poor planning, such as the student housing issue, Oshawa's harbour/waterfront problems, and problems with our downtown, I likely look at this issue from a different perspective.
I said at Council before the vote, in my experience, the prudent buyer steps away from a bidding war and waits for the dust to settle, preferring not to put in a bid with no house inspection or financing conditions. My vote, I believed, would give the City some benefit of learning from the experience of other municipalities, I did not see much merit in Oshawa taking a lead on this. And if this is an 'economic driver' I said I sure as heck hope we have a bigger, more real one on the horizon soon, because I don't get how a retail store, no matter how desirable its product can provide that big a boon to the local economy. Cannabis licenced producers yes, but how is a retail store really any more than a boon for the owners than a Macdonalds or Walmart is an economic driver?
Thanks go out to Councillor Nicholson for copying my post recording the meeting's vote results, I didn't realize when I wrote it when I got home after the meeting that I had posted it as a 'reply' above instead of the more visible the main thread where he copied it.
Of course I stand by my decision. Fyi, the Oshawa Express reported "McConkey said some of the benefits of cannabis and related-products are well known, but she wanted to make a “fair and reasoned decision.” She said “caution is important” in such a choice, and desired to wait and see how retail cannabis stores roll out in other municipalities. Furthermore, McConkey questioned how significant of an “economic driver” the cannabis industry would be for Oshawa, an argument made by a number of delegates to council during the evening in support of allowing stores.".
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Friday, January 11th, was an all day Special Council meeting re the 2019 Budget...details on that to follow...some good, some not so good... I will post more about it separately...soon. Meanwhile, note: this Tuesday January 15th 7:30 to 8:30 pm is the live on-line Question and Answer with the City's Commissioner of Finance Stephanie Sinnott. Submit your question here: www.connectoshawa.ca/budget2019?tool=qanda#tool_tab
or here https://www.connectoshawa.ca/budget2019
Further, note: this Thursday, Jan 17th starting at 6:30 in the Council Chamber is the Budget meeting for Public Engagement