A tale of poo…

There’s a debate going on right now about poo in Simcoe County.

You probably haven’t heard about it, because those aren’t the sort of meetings media schmucks get invited to. In fact, there’s probably a few council members who have yet to hear about it — that’s just how top-level, Double Secret Probation these meetings have been.

But it’s going on, all of it somewhat tied to this urban node stuff being discussed between the five designated growth communities in the region: Collingwood, Barrie, Orillia, Bradford, and New Tecumseth.

Well, the poo stuff is mainly between Collingwood and New Tec, the assumption being if we can build a pipe from Nottawasaga Bay to Alliston to pump water, we can certainly build a pipe back to Nottawasaga Bay and fill it up with poo. Just as long, of course, that it’s not the same pipe.

At the moment, New Tec pumps its poo into the Nottawasaga River — after it’s been thoroughly cleaned up, of course. In fact, most of this side of the county pumps its poo back into the river — aside from Collingwood — using a variety of technology and into creeks that feed the river.

Creemore, for instance, pumps its poo into the Mad River, which feeds the Nottawasaga. Creemore has a state-of-the-art poo-cleaning facility, very similar to Collingwood’s water filtration plant, which works on the principle of reverse osmosis. Stayner, on the other hand, has a series of sewage treatment ponds that are supposed to filter the, uh, sediment, before the liquid stuff goes into Lamont Creek — and down into the Nottawasaga.

(Believe me, I was thinking about all this as I was paddling from Schoonertown Bridge to the Main Street bridge on Sunday morning…)

So anyway, the thought is all these municipalities (which have not been part of the Double Secret Probation meetings) between us and Alliston would be able to tie into this big pipe, moving all the poo to Collingwood — albeit not to the current treatment plant, which is presently getting close to its capacity for poo. No, a new treatment plant would be needed, with a longer pipe that would go right out into Nottawasaga Bay, probably a mile or so at least. I’m presuming that the further out the pipe, the more likely the ability of the bay to handle the effluent — regardless of how cleaned up it is.

The thing, I think, that is disturbing (and I haven’t even started to delve into the environmental aspects of this) is the Double Secret Probation nature of these discussions. It seems to me, that three or so years back when municipal officials were starting to talk about the future of Collingwood’s water filtration plant, that some people (hullo, VOTE!) got pretty pissy (so to speak) that the public wasn’t being brought up to speed and given the opportunity to provide input, given the importance of the issue…

Keep your eyes on the E-B in the coming days — I’m sure we will have more…

 

It would be funny, but…

Yesterday’s call came from a fellow I hadn’t heard from in some time; it seems he was returning a ‘favour’ I had paid him several years back which saved him a little personal embarrassment, and wanted to give me a head’s up.

He’d been speaking to someone who informed him that “Ian Adams is running for office.” This person also stated my campaign was being funded by a third individual — which, to my mind, would be highly illegal under campaign finance rules for municipal elections.

There was also an intimation there would be an active campaign to dig up ’skeletons in my closet’.

My first honest reaction — for about a second — was how funny the whole thing was… if it wasn’t for the fact there is a person, or group of people, who are actively attempting to harm my reputation in one way or another, for the sole reason that I would (not necessarily saying I am) run for municipal office.

That I’d be that much of an electoral threat that you’d feel the need to destroy my reputation is kind of ludicrous…

Is that how we conduct democracy at the local level in Collingwood now? That, rather than pit candidate versus candidate on the issues, we would rather try to find a personal quirk or embarrassing incident in an effort to discourage a person from running for office. Even the suggestion that I’m involved in an illegal activity (i.e. election financing irregularities), quite frankly, pisses me off to the extreme.

My response? Firstly, that whomever is involved in this so-called ‘campaign’ is dead man walking. I want you to seriously consider your chances with me in a dark alley, or a lit foyer, or a crowded restaurant… or, quite frankly, anywhere. I don’t take kindly to smears that would either harm my reputation or have the potential to hurt my family.

Alternatively, I just involve my lawyer. I suspect it would be far more painful for the person concerned…

 

Ratepayers’ group disappears off ‘Net

Collingwood’s purported ratepayer’s group, VOTE Collingwood, no longer appears to have an online presence (click here for the cached version).

I guess this means no access to the 2006 municipal election questions-and-answers, so no comparing comments made during the campaign to actions during this term of council.

Does this mean an end to a group that had such an influence over the last election, yet has virtually disappeared during this term? At the group’s last AGM in May, only 25 or 26 members turned out, and chair Karen Poshter tried to intimate the lack of numbers proved the group was the “victim of its own success.” More likely the group was a victim of its own hypocrisy, given that there have been several issues this term that the group has been mum on – though were quite vocal when similar topics came up during the previous regime…

 

It’s a matter of timing…

The second block of Hurontario Street is open this morning for the first time in more than a month; all the underground work is wrapped up, and areas that will be ‘bricked’ next year have a temporary layer of asphalt.

However… driving is a bit of a nightmare. I guess when the block was closed off, the timing of the stoplights was adjusted to facilitate east-west traffic on Third/Ontario and Second/Simcoe. Driving up Hurontario this morning, the timing hasn’t been re-adjusted… meaning if you’re headed north south, the green light is on for approximately half the time that east-west traffic gets the green. There were a couple of times – that I saw – when the northbound lane on main street was solid cars for the entire block…

 

Yes, I’ve been negligent…

Because of things in the ‘real world’ (as in, focusing on the treeware product before I can focus on cyberspace), there hasn’t been much time to post as regularly as I would like.

But I do have a few odds and ends…

For one, the photo at left has been donated to the Peak FM’s Christmas draw for the General & Marine Hospital Foundation; in this case, the actual photo is a framed 13×18 (or thereabouts) print (Peak FM morning guy John Nichols sez more about it here). Now, the only thing, the print is not signed; if you’re the happy winner on Dec. 24, bring it by the E-B office at some point and I will sign it – and also note that it is print one of 10.

The photo is one of a series of pics I’ve taken over the years with the grain terminals lit up by fireworks; if you want to see more, you check out my Fire & Grain photo gallery on my Facebook page (the photos, by the way, are for sale…)

A story you’ll note in tomorrow’s edition of the E-B,, written by reporter Shawn Giilck, is the ongoing efforts by the Citizens for Public Infrastructure to get information on the town’s involvement with the grant approval for the Pretty River Academy; it’s also noted in the story that Collingwood councillor Norman Sandberg responded to the group’s founder Lorne Kenney’s second freedom of information request as a “conspiracy theory” and that the councillor would distribute the FOI request to whom he saw fit (i.e. Pretty River Academy).

There’s a reason politicians shouldn’t be involved in requests under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy – and Norm just proved why. There’ll be more on this one in Friday’s paper…

 

Dec. 10 court date for Rahim Jaffer

I’m sure we’ll have something about this in our Friday edition of the E-B; Rahim Jaffer will be back in court on Dec. 10 to answer to charges of impaired driving and cocaine possession.

An odd thing though: I wonder how the Conservative Party of Canada feels about Mr. Jaffer having their logo on his website?

 

CCI versus St. Joan’s…

The Senior Fighting Owls will be taking on the St. Joan of Arc Knights in the semi-finals of the GBSSA football championships this afternoon, starting at 2 p.m.; I’ll be ‘Tweeting’ (‘Twittering’?) on the E-B’s Twitter feed from the sidelines — so you can follow along in the column on the right-hand side if you can’t make the game…

Early prediction: CCI is likely to school St. Joan’s, 36-13…

 

Conservatives belly up to the printing trough…

Who says the Conservatives aren’t creating jobs? Evidently, based on the 2008-09 individual members expenditures, Conservatives are creating hundreds of jobs with the Queen’s Printer; in the last fiscal period, MPs spent more than $10 million on printing, including those wonderful 10 percenter householders that arrive in your mailbox courtesy of the Conservative Research Group.

And of course, the Conservatives are at the top of the heap, with 15 of the 16 top-spending MPs (Olivia Chow the lone non-Tory) being members of the Harper caucus. And among them — Simcoe-Grey’s own Helena Guergis, who dropped more than $86,800 on printing (that’s with your and my tax dollars, folks!). That’s a 55-per-cent increase on what she spent the previous year, and would include the infamous constituency newsletter that arrived in our mailboxes during the election campaign (and which she said she would pay for… and we remember what happened there…)

Anyway, I’m just working on an article for Friday’s E-B. Stay tuned…

 

Collingwood “ahead of the times”…

A couple of days and it could be excused as something overlooked; after five days, it gets mocked: no one has bothered to reset Collingwood’s town hall clock back to Eastern Standard Time.

At first it was suggested former CAO Gord Norris was the only one who knew how to operate the clock; however, the clock stopped during Saturday’s power outage, and someone thought to reset the time once the electricity came back on. However, to have it sit there, an hour ahead of everyone else, is getting kind of ridiculous.

It could also be that no one at town hall knows it’s ahead, because no one has bothered to say anything…

 

Fourth time a charm…

According to a source close to the ‘campaign’, Rick Lloyd is poised to throw his hat in the ring to be Collingwood’s mayor; while a candidate can’t officially file until Jan. 4, Lloyd may make an announcement soon, possibly within a couple of weeks.

With the possibility of the election date being moved up, it seems even more imperative to hit the campaign trail sooner than later — especially if you’re vying for a position as mayor…