Old Fight, New Candidate

Hanlon Creek Fight Gearin’ Up Again

Last Friday, opponents of the Hanlon Creek Business Park gathered at Goldie Mill Park to distribute information and talk to the public about why they think the business park should be shuttered. It’s another sign that this might be another long summer for the development project in the city’s southwest end. This comes just a couple of weeks after a press conference in front of city hall where the Hanlon Creek 5, the five people charged in a SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) suit for last summer’s occupation of the HCBP lands, decried being bullied by the City for acting, as they say, in the public interest. During my interview with the Ward 6 councillors for last week’s “Better Know a Ward,” Coun. Karl Wettstein said in no uncertain terms that the HCBP will move forward this summer, and there will be repercussions for anyone disrupting work on the site. Stay tuned for more because this issue is far from resolved.

New Candidate Enters Ward 1

Last week, Eugene Gromczynski threw his hat into the ring to become the fourth candidate running in Ward 1 for the municipal election this fall. Gromczynski ran in the 2006 election and finished fifth out of five candidates. If you're interested, I did a questionnaire with Gromczynski during the 2006 Election when I was editor of thecannon.ca. You can read it at http://thecannon.ca/page.php?id=22&v=1522. If you want to see the full slate of candidates thus far, then you’ll want to click on http://www.guelph.ca/votes, or you can check out my blog at http://guelphpolitico.blogspot.com

Transit Workers Try to Rally Support

If you've rode on transit lately, you'll have witnessed a growing, but silent, sense of disgruntlement from the drivers. You might recognize one of three flyers, either taped up on bus shelters, left out in public areas or slipped to dedicated riders on the Q.T. In no uncertain terms these flyers say that the members of the transit union are fed up, and they're trying to rally support from loyal transit users to kick up a storm. Smart strategy considering that the city's bus lines are returning to 30 minute service all week long for three months starting in June, there's going to be no Sunday service at all in August, and from the U-pass to adult tickets, everybody's seen a fare increase in the last couple of months.

Transit workers have got their own reasons to be ticked too. About 31 transit employees will be laid off between June and August, or otherwise have their hours severely cut back. This, while the City talks about the priority of transit and all its future plans, which kind of comes off looking like a lot of double speak. In the meantime, the drivers, the front line workers, probably are taking the brunt of the abuse for all of transit's recent shortfalls. If you want to take a look at the flyers, if you haven’t already, checkout Politico.

Get the lead out…

Interested in water issues? Well, tonight is your night. Members of the community are invited to a public information session to learn more about lead in our drinking water.The information covered will include Ontario drinking water regulations, health risks of lead in drinking water, options on reducing lead levels, and details about the new grant pilot program for Guelph homeowners replacing their private lead service lines. City staff, consultants and representatives from the Ministry of the Environment and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health Unit will answer questions and ask residents to provide their feedback about the City’s lead reduction options. The info session begins at 6 pm at the Guelph Waterworks at 29 Waterworks Place, off York Rd.