Heritage signs for South Dundas

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While South Dundas council may have handled more than its fair share of controversy in 2013, its mayor is looking ahead to 2014;  positive about what has been accomplished, positive about projects in the works and positive about the new year.

The 2013 year end interview with local media took place December 18 at the Mayor’s office on the third floor of the new South Dundas Municipal Centre in Morrisburg.

“We are definitely sitting in the highlight of the year,” said South Dundas Mayor Steven Byvelds of the South Dundas Municipal Centre.

“We have rebuilt this into a very useful space, not only for South Dundas council and staff, but for the St. Lawrence Medical Clinic,” said Byvelds.

This SDMC building project, along with South Dundas’ partnership with the St. Lawrence Medical Clinic team to renovate the former Catholic school in Iroquois into a new clinic, means that South Dundas is now home to two new medical facilities.

“That is an important asset in a time where it is challenging to keep medical staff within our borders,” said Byvelds.

Although not yet complete, Byvelds reported that the new Morrisburg library portion of the project should be finished early this year. It will be housed in a portion of the former Morrisburg Clinic space.

On top of this huge project nearing completion, Byvelds is proud to have been able to be part of major progress on working towards rectifying infrastructure issues that have needed addressing for decades.

He acknowledges that the work taking place around Lakeshore Drive certainly wouldn’t have been possible without $2 million worth of provincial funding that South Dundas was fortunate enough to receive. 

That funding, along with the funding for the new Iroquois waste water treatment plant, have allowed significant infrastructure improvements. 

“A lot of good stuff happened with that money,” said Byvelds. 

The new Iroquois waste water treatment plant is expected to be commissioned within a couple of months.

Also, coming to council early in the new year, are plans for the expansion of the Williamsburg recreation building that will return library space to Williamsburg and also provide a useful facility for the community.

With 2014 being an election year, like most municipal politicians, Byvelds hopes for a ‘boring’ year, but he will not shy away from making decisions because of the looming election, which will take place in October.

“I know that any issues that are simmering won’t disappear, and when the time comes, we will deal with things the best we can.”

No matter the issue, Byvelds always adheres to the same process. “You listen, you learn, then you make the decision, and that in part is where your own philosophies come into play,” he explained.

“Most times, change is the biggest challenge, but change is inevitable. Change is challenging for me too, but I know that change has to be managed. It can’t be radical. It has to make sense. I don’t like change either, but globally it is something we need to deal with. If you do nothing, then you are going backwards, and I’m not prepared to do that.”

Even a tough open forum meeting in the fall where much of the public backlash over various issues was directed at Byvelds, has not swayed his philosophy.

Admittedly a tough experience, Byvelds still called the process a useful one, as people had the opportunity to voice their opinions. 

“In an election year, my role is to lead properly,” said Byvelds. “I need to demonstrate leadership, showing the community what it takes to run a municipality from the mayor’s chair.”

He sees 2014 as a year to settle down, get things wrapped up and put South Dundas in a position to allow its new council to pick up the ball and make the decisions going forward.

Byvelds would not divulge his intentions for the 2014 election. He plans to make his intentions known in late summer. His only prediction for the new year, was that South Dundas residents will see a zero or very modest tax increase in 2014. 

The budgeting process will take place earlier in 2014 than it has in the past, a change that Byvelds has been eager to see. 

At this point he is focusing on the roads system. “We are a rural municipality and roads are important,” said Byvelds. “I would rather spend money on roads wisely, making things last beyond their useful life than ignore them.”

“Provincial funding has dried up, so how we manage our own affairs is very important,” he said. 

[…]

 

Adrian Harewood arrived a little late for his speaking engagement with the Canadian Club of Morrisburg and District on Wednesday, May 16.

However, this was understandable. 

He was still on air when the banquet began, anchoring CBC News Ottawa, before thousands of viewers. 

A renowned journalist, radio host (All in a Day) and respected news commentator, Harewood was the final speaker of the Club’s 2011-2012 series. A large crowd of members and guests was on hand to hear Harewood speak on topic about which he clearly has deep feelings, “Volunteers in the Community.”

Personable, outgoing and a gifted speaker, Harewood quickly won over the audience, with his sense of humour. However, there was a serious point to his address.

Canada, like the rest of the world, has changed, he explained, with traditional communities often lost in the new on-line ‘digital’ societies. This is a world made up of hundreds of “friends” that people have never met, will never meet.

“The digital world is, of course, a great creativity source,” Harwood said, “but one effect of this change is that we are in danger of losing the human touch in our lives. Research has found that more people feel disconnected from society than ever before. People seem to be craving the sense of community life,  of simple conversations,  of recognition. They share a wish that they actually knew their neighbours. Without reminders of what community can be, we may lose parts of our humanity.”

Harewood grew up in Ottawa, a member of a close-knit family where both parents were community activists. They instilled in their son the strong belief that he had a responsibility to people, even to people he would never know. Other people’s lives needed to matter to him. 

“Our home was a place where everyone was welcome. I remember my mother bringing  home a Tunisian woman, a woman struggling to gain an education and to leave behind the desperate circumstances of her old life. She was Tunisian, Arabic, a francophone, a Muslim, and a Canadian. She became part of our lives. She was a member of our community.”

Harewood’s parents emphasized the need to be involved with the people in one’s community, to work for justice and freedom. They always stressed that everyone has a responsibility to the community.

Years later, Harewood was interviewing former United States president Bill Clinton, and asked him what he saw as the biggest problem of the 21st century.

“The problem, Clinton told me, lies in the struggle to overcome the differences that divide us as a global community.”

Volunteering, actively and personally getting involved in the life of a community, is vital, Harewood stressed.

“The act of volunteering is the connective tissue that ties our communities together. Volunteers are the civil engineers who build a healthy community. They weave the webs of solidarity and compassion. We cannot survive without the support of others because we are the products of our communities.”

Harewood illustrated how  the power of volunteering can bring even the most unlikely people together. 

He cited the example, a few months ago, of a drought fund raising concert, arranged by young, educated Somalian activists at the Centre Point Theatre. 

“They asked me to volunteer to work with them. But what utterly surprized me, when I saw the entertainment bill, was the  highly unlikely presence on it of a country and western band made up of middle-aged, conservative, white men.  That’s when I came to understand that those young African men and those middle-aged white men shared in common a profound belief in a cause: they were determined to help their community.”

Volunteering, Harewood said, is a gift to our neighbours, and a gift to ourselves.  Volunteers often get back far more than they give in terms of new possibilities,  of new ways of looking at the world.

Caring about the community, and doing what one can to help and to work with neighbours, makes all of us “more ‘human,’ human beings.”

Adrian Harewood chose words from the reverend Martin Luther King to conclude his address.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

[…]