Jun
30
2009
Council has awarded the contract for the final design of the sewage treatment plant to the Thompson Rosemont Group. The goal will be to tender the project in January 2010 with an expected start date of construction in the spring of 2010. We will also be working on funding models for the septage receiving facility with a view to holding a public meeting in early fall.
Jun
29
2009
I have received numerous enquiries concerning the 24 hour operation that is taking place at the quarry on Highway 29. The permit that they have allows them to work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Monday to Friday. Recently work has been taking place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The O.P.P.have visited the site on numerous occasions and have laid the appropriate charges. If the owners of the quarry continue to ignore these charges, we will take further action to ensure that the owners of the pit follow the rules or suffer the consequences.
Jun
26
2009
In October 2007, the County of Lanark in cooperation with the local municipalities embarked on a program to bring high speed internet access to the rural communities. The first step in that project was to establish the network: by building towers, by identifying high spots in the county such as churches, silos, and establishing community nodes. As a result, by the end of 2008, high speed access is now available to 70% of the residents of Mississippi Mills. The difficulty of providing access to the other 30% has been mainly the rough terrain of our county. However, we have now received additional funding from the provincial government to address those problems. Our goal is to provide broadband coverage to virtually all residents of Mississippi Mills. You will be hearing more about Phase 2 of this project in the upcoming weeks.
Jun
24
2009
A design has been chosen for the centre of the roundabout coming into Almonte and should be completed in the next couple of weeks. We are also continuing the process of reducing the number of signs.
The Ottawa Citizen has an interesting column today by Kelly Egan entitled “Taking the roundabout way to safer city streets”.
OTTAWA — Stop signs are not only stupid, they’re dangerous. So argues Gordon Whitehead, and rather persuasively. Think of the number of times, in your neighbourhood, you are forced by a stop sign to bring the car to a halt at a deserted intersection. Braking, looking, waiting, accelerating — more fuel, more pollution, wear and tear on the vehicle, more travel time — then do it again a block later, maybe at another deserted intersection. Repeat often, by the millions and millions, across the city, across North America.
In addition to the endless stops and starts, says the retired Ottawa resident, they’re an invitation to a collision. “Stop signs are an accident waiting to happen,” says the former air-traffic controller. “Someone, at some point, is not going to see it and sail right through.” Now throw in an entire enforcement regime, a veritable army of police officers, to make sure Mr. Harried Driver is not rolling through the stop at 2 km/h. Woaaah, there, skipper, that’s so dangerous!
Whitehead grew up in Britain, you might have guessed, and is a big fan of roundabouts, the common method of controlling traffic at intersections throughout Europe. Instead of stopping, vehicles at an intersection slow down and travel around a circular island. The roundabouts come in all shapes and sizes — from l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris, to the “minis” that are little more than built bumps in the centre of an intersection, but marked by lines. Last fall, Whitehead took a driving holiday through Britain, driving 1,356 kilometres in a rental car. “Do you know how many stop signs I ran into?” he asks. “None.”
Across North America, engineers and planners have come to accept what the Brits have known for decades: roundabouts are safer, cheaper, more efficient and environmentally friendlier than stop signs. There is something else to consider about these red hexagons. They are, in fact, more missable than intuition would lead us to believe.
There is some scientific evidence to suggest why. To wit. There was a well-known experiment done by a pair of researchers at the visual cognition lab at the University of Illinois about six years ago. They positioned six students in a circle — three in white shirts, three in black — and had them toss a basketball back and forth. Viewers were asked to count the passes. Part-way through the 75-second video, a person in a gorilla suit walks through the circle, beating its chest. When asked later, as many as half the viewers reported not seeing the gorilla, a phenomenon the psychologists call “inattentional blindness.” (In other words, if you’re tasked with one thing — looking for a street address, talking on the cellphone, changing the radio, fiddling with the GPS, combo of the above — you can easily miss the obvious other thing, like that red sign on a slender steel post.)
Roundabouts, though they may look chaotic, are actually safer than traffic-signal intersections, research has shown — reducing collisions by 36 to 40 per cent and fatalities by 90 per cent. Two factors are at play there: vehicles move slower and they don’t meet at right angles. Ottawa is actually turning the corner when it comes to roundabouts. There are now roughly 10 genuine roundabouts in the city, about half of them built in the last five years. And who would have thought Barrhaven would be the great incubator, with at least four and probably more on the way? Originally, Councillor Jan Harder was a skeptic, wondering if city staff were “crazy” to even suggest the idea to commuters accustomed to conventional traffic signalling. “But, I’ll tell you, it has worked better than anything I’ve ever seen.” Like many suburbs, Barrhaven endures a morning peak, then enjoys lighter traffic through the day. Stop signs didn’t serve the community well, she said — clogging traffic attempting to get onto arterials in the morning, then stopping the mid-day shopper on the way to the mall. The roundabouts, Harder says, keep traffic moving — all day. “It has worked out fantastically,” she said.
There is an issue with pedestrians, particularly school children and seniors, but those situations can be handled with proper design, she explained. City of Ottawa traffic program manager Greg Kent said council told staff to consider roundabouts when designing new intersections or upgrading older ones. The day is probably not near when older neighbourhoods will be retrofitted with them, however. Space is an issue, as is driver mindset. “We want public acceptance” before they are used at major intersections that use multiple lanes in the circle, he said. Shouldn’t be difficult. Less stopping on our busy roads? Sounds like a go.
Jun
19
2009
Jun
12
2009
We all need to recognize the major economic benefits of the numerous festivals which take place in our community. This summer our major festivals are Celtfest, the Almonte Fair, the Naismith 3 on 3 basketball tournament, Puppets Up!, the North Lanark Highland Games, the Step Dancing and Fiddle Contest, Busfusion, and the Canada Day celebrations.
One of the major festivals, Puppets Up!, brings about 7500 people to our town over a two day period. This morning, along with members of the The Puppets Up! committee, puppeteers, Silly-U, local media, Jeri and I toured Ottawa in a trolly bus. We walked through the Market, then to Parliament Hill, and on to the Sparks Street Mall, interacting with hundreds of people. The group was interviewed, photographed and videotaped by a variety of Ottawa media, including the new RO, CTV, and the Ottawa Citizen. I congratulate the committee on a well-organized trip.
Puppets Up! Launch
Later today, I visited with campers who are staying at the NLAS fairgrounds as part of Busfusion. They are will be visiting our local restaurants, the meat market and shops this weekend, pumping major dollars into our struggling economy.
Jun
9
2009
Jeri and I have just spent four glorious days in Vancouver visiting Stephen, the youngest member of our family. We have visited Vancouver numerous times over the years as our oldest son also attended university there. We absolutely love the city.
I have always been impressed at how many trees there are in the older sections of the city. The city has obviously gone to great lengths to preserve them and to replace them when they die.
Council recently discussed the issue of trimming trees in our parks and I feel that it is time we established a firm policy on replacing older trees that require removal and also, with the help of the community, establish a policy of planting new trees in our parks and other town properties. I will be bringing this issue back to council in the near future. In the meantime if you have any suggestions on this issue, please let me know.
Jun
9
2009
Some of you have commented to me recently that Mississippi Mills seems to be receiving numerous grants. I agree that over the past five years, we have been receiving our fair share. In fact we have received close to $25 million. Don’t forget though that the majority of those dollars are 66 cent dollars.
These grants do not just fall from the sky. Each grant requires many hours of preparation. Under the leadership of our CAO, Diane Smithson, staff have done their homework well in advance and when the criteria is announced for grants, the statistics are available and the studies have been done to justify our request.
There is also a political arm to obtaining these grants and although sometimes I get frustrated continually pounding on doors and asking the same questions of our provincial and federal representatives, I assure you I have no intentions of letting up. Both levels of government seem to be getting the message that small communities such as ourselves simply cannot go it alone in funding major projects.
I am extremely proud of all staff at Mississippi Mills, not only for the work that is done on grant applications, but for the excellent performance of their daily duties.
Jun
5
2009
CANADA—ONTARIO PARTNERSHIP CREATES JOBS,
STIMULATES ECONOMY IN MISSISSIPPI MILLS
Arena funding
Residents of Carleton-Mississippi Mills will benefit from federal and provincial infrastructure funding for key infrastructure projects across Mississippi Mills, announced today by the Honourable Gordon O’Connor, MP and the Honourable Jim Watson, MPP. This project is just one example of both governments’ commitment to stimulating the Ontario economy through the creation of jobs in our communities.
This money will go to key infrastructure investments in the town of Mississippi Mills including:
· Renovations to the Almonte Community Centre. They will receive $651,740 from the federal government and the same amount from the province.
· Four kilometres of 8th Concession Ramsay will be reconstructed. The federal government and the province will each contribute $160,000 for this project.
· Spring Street will be reconstructed, including water and sewer main replacements, with contributions of $147,000 from each level of government.
These projects will improve transportation efficiency and enhance local facilities and services and create local jobs.
“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, our Government is getting shovels in the ground and flowing money faster to stimulate the economy and create jobs for Ontarians,” said Gordon O’Connor. “Thanks to the strong relationship between our two governments, we can work together to help Ontario communities and the economy thrive immediately and in the future.”
“The Government of Ontario is pleased to be able to make this significant investment in infrastructure projects that include transit, local roads, cultural facilities and many other projects that will benefit the residents of Carleton–Mississippi Mills,” said Jim Watson, MPP for Ottawa West – Nepean and Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. “These projects will stimulate the local economy, create new jobs, and improve services for residents here and across the Ottawa region.”
The governments of Canada and Ontario will each invest up to $958,740 in the project. The Town of Mississippi Mills will contribute the balance of the total eligible project cost of up to $958,740.
“We are pleased to receive this infrastructure money that is so critical to small communities such as ours. We would like to thank both the federal and provincial governments for recognizing these infrastructure needs in our communities,” said Mississippi Mills Mayor Al Lunney. “Because these projects are all shovel ready, we can begin work immediately to enhance our local facilities and improve our roads.”
These projects are a part of many across the province that will break ground thanks to joint federal and provincial funding. Together with funded applicant contributions, the total investment in local infrastructure improvements under this intake is $3.4 billion across Ontario. The governments of Canada and Ontario have taken steps to get shovels in the ground and to flow money faster for targeted infrastructure projects starting in the 2009 construction season.
LEARN MORE
Learn how the Government of Canada is investing in Ontario infrastructure.
Learn how the Government of Ontario is helping to build and revitalize infrastructure.
Jun
4
2009
Tomorrow (Friday, June 5, 2009 at 4:00 p.m.) Gordon O’Connor, MP, will once again be at our offices to make some significant infrastructure funding announcements. Most recently the Town put in applications to complete renovations at the Almonte Community Centre, reconstruction of 8th line of Ramsay, Spring Street reconstruction and Nugent Bridge in Pakenham. We will be hearing from him tomorrow as to which of these projects we received funding for.
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