$27 million worth of construction

Like everyone else, even the township gets hit with unexpected costs now and again.

On October 4th, Don Lewis, Manager of Recreation, informed the South Dundas council that three of their roof top units for two of their buildings had been red-tagged by the gas company, meaning that the gas won’t be turned on until the heaters are replaced or fixed.

The Morrisburg Justice Building has two roof top units needing immediate attention. One, almost 20 years old, will be completely replaced. The other, only ten years old, will require only the heat exchanger to be replaced.

The remaining roof top unit in question is also close to 20 years old and can be found in Iroquois at the Civic Centre. This unit will be completely replaced.

A tender invitation is being advertised in this week’s papers.

In terms of financing the repairs, Treasurer Shannon Geraghty told council that there “are some potential items we’ve saved on this year” as well as “savings we could pull from.”

As Mayor Steven Byvelds pointed out, “things break unexpectedly.” He said that he agreed with Geraghty, “we should find savings out of the existing budget.”

[…]

 

According to a press release, Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB) students were safely transported to and from school on Friday, January 13 after the board made the decision to allow buses to run during the morning’s slushy weather.

Based on a favourable forecast, and positive reports from bus contractors who checked the conditions on area roads between 4 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., the decision was made to allow buses to run, said Superintendent David Coombs. Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worse.

 Coombs also conceded that board officials were caught off-guard by Friday morning’s wet and slushy conditions, and said they would have cancelled had they known how the weather would turn.

“Hindsight is 20/20,” said Coombs. “But in hindsight, with today’s conditions, we should have cancelled.”

“Unfortunately, this is not an exact science and we make our decisions based on the best information we have at the time. We apologize for any concerns we might have caused for our students and their families.”

“At the same time, it’s also important to remember here that our students got to school and back safely.”

Coombs explained that the GM/CAO of Student Transportation of Eastern Ontario works closely with Pelmorex/The Weather Network, and bus contractors, in order to receive the most up-to-date information about local weather and road conditions. 

Decisions concerning the cancellation of school bus and special vehicle transportation must be made cooperatively based upon this information by no later than 5:30 a.m.

Friday, the information conveyed was that although there would be some light patchy freezing rain in some areas, it was not significant enough to warrant cancelling buses.

There are 18 distinct zones within the UCDSB. Every zone has a captain that goes out to check roads in their area, who then provides their input. All captains gave the go-ahead to run the buses, said Coombs.

Coombs added that parents may decide to keep their child at home at any time if they feel that it is too risky to have him or her transported to school.

[…]

 

On February 24th, the Linking Hands Network held a working group meeting, Access to Transportation, at The Gathering House in Chesterville.

The meeting is one of six working group meetings set up in response to the outcome from the November 18, 2011 Dundas County Community Forum held at the Christian Reformed Church in Williamsburg. 

In November, Pauline Pratt, Executive Director for the House of Lazarus, told The Leader that “this Community Forum was the next step in the House of Lazarus’s Linking Hands in Dundas project. The overall vision of the project is to develop sustainable solutions to the increasing poverty we are experiencing in North and South Dundas, and create communities that are more resilient.”

The six working group meetings cover the following themes: access to transportation; access to basic health care needs; access to safe, nutritious, primarily local food; community connections and navigating the system; economic and entrepreneurial development and training; and, strategies for increasing participation in physical activities.

Nanda Wubs was the coordinator for Friday’s meeting, Access to Transportation, in which Robert Dupuis discussed the success of a similar venture in Quebec. 

In addition to Dupuis, Harry Gow also discussed similar transportation initiatives, like the non-profit transportation service in North Grenville. Following the presentation, audience members were able to ask both Gow and Dupuis questions.

According to Wubs, “the event was well-attended and there was a good representation of local agencies including both municipalities.”

In terms of a next step, Wubs said, “continue investigating other models of transportation networks, send out a survey to agencies to determine current transportation ‘stock’ and to the community to do a transportation needs assessment.” 

“In regards to political support,” she continued, “I feel that both townships are open to hearing ideas from the community that could make transportation less of a burden on some. At this point we don’t have any more expectation than that from them.”

“However, as Robert Dupuis mentioned, the Federal Gas Tax credit is available to Municipalities for transit only. They cannot access it otherwise which means there is a pool of money that could be used to help the transportation network. More research has to be done in this area.”

Wubs admitted, “this is a daunting task but the wheels are definitely rolling.”

“I want to reiterate the reason Linking Hands is doing this,” she said, “we are an advocacy group for rural poor in Dundas County and transportation was a key theme in the Community Forum held last November which was titled Building a Sustainable Dundas County.”

“If our community is not sustainable, there could be more on their way to being poor. As the Chesterville Record put it so nicely ‘economic hope begins with a ride to work’.”

For more information, email linkinghandsdundas@gmail.com or phone the House of Lazarus at 613-989-3830.

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