Reeve heard no questions

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Several dozen ratepayers filled the seats in the Council Chambers on Monday evening for the Public Meeting held to comment on and ask questions about the 2010 proposed budget. Following close to two hours of questions, Reeve Cathcart’s closing comment was that he had heard no questions but instead, just “requests for clarification”. I suggest that what he heard were concerns from ratepayers on the direction in which the township is moving.

One of the questions that came up several times centred on the future of the Millbrook Mill and Dam. A study commissioned and paid for jointly by the township and ORCA recommended that the community was strongly in favour of retaining the Millbrook Dam and Needler’s Mill. The study was conducted because both structures are in critically poor condition. The dam is considered a hazard. The front porch of the Mill was recently declared unsafe for use. Deputy Reeve Bartlett is the Council representative sitting on the ORCA Board. According to Deputy Reeve Bartlett, no progress has been made, although across the Council table there was discussion of an Environmental Assessment that must be undertaken first, a process that can take a year or more. It appears from what I could understand from Mr. Bartlett, that there is no clear will to follow the recommendations of the study that the township and ORCA initiated. Is it too much to ask that Deputy-Reeve Bartlett would be a clear voice at the ORCA table, representing the township’s interests and bringing the issue to the top of the agenda?

Pick and choose your studies. Over a million dollars will go towards the engineering and design of the Fraserville Water and Wastewater project, even though the jury is still out on whether or not the township will be required by the Ministry of the Environment to undertake further environmental studies. And where will the water for Fraserville come from? If there were funds earmarked for further investigation of alternatives to taking water from the Oak Ridges Moraine, I didn’t see it.

Celia Hunter

RR 2, Millbrook