So tonight, Occupy Collingwood Friends of Central Park project will be holding a public meeting at the Collingwood Legion to get out “the facts.” There’s been so much flying around these days about the rec facilities, it’s been tough to separate ‘facts’ from the ‘fiction’. There’s also been nasty swirly
Continue readingTag: General nonsense
Muddying the (pool) waters…
… The Simcoe-Muskoka YMCA, in an open letter to its members, indicates it has met with municipal officials and presented an option for aquatics. It included a breakdown of costs that the local rumblings suggest would make it (gasp!) cheaper financially more efficient for the Y to operate a 25-metre
Continue readingOccupy Collingwood Part Deux…
… or the Long March to Truthiness… On Monday, the folks who want town council to revisit the decision on rec facilities will march from Central Park to town hall. They’ll be wanting answers, but all I suspect is they’ll come away with is frustration and sore feet. Let’s face
Continue readingRally Ready: Girding our loins for Occupy Collingwood…
Will you be downtown at 4? Will there be 100? 300? 23? There’s no question the folks rallying in front of town hall against council’s decision to build two fabric structures — one over Centennial Pool, the other over a new ice rink planned for Central Park — are driven
Continue readingFinding legitimacy…
It’s been quite something to watch some of the comments fly around — here, on Facebook, on the petition, and in emails — with regard to Collingwood council’s decision last Monday to go ahead and build two structures — sole-sourced, at that — to cover Centennial Pool, and a new
Continue readingWhen all else fails…
… launch a petition. Though, based on 20 years of covering council, I can’t think of a petition that’s been successful in swaying council, at least one that’s opposed to a decision of council: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/collingwoodrecfacilities/ I don’t entirely disagree with the thrust; council didn’t ask the public about the, uh,
Continue readingTime to make the best of it…
From what I’ve heard, the furious emails about council’s decision Monday night have been arriving fast and, uh, furious… At this point the whole thing seems moot; you can jump up and down about how the process went all you want, but it’s ain’t gonna change the price of oil.
Continue readingRec facility proposals – just the facts, please…
OK, so we’re counting down to Monday night, when councillors will deliberate on the direction they’ll take with recreational facilities. According to my sources, there’s a full-court press on this weekend to convince the decision-makers on which is the best option: building two Sprung structures, one over the outdoor pool,
Continue readingAnd another thing…
I hope the E-B’s editorial this week provides food for thought for the folks who make decisions on behalf of the community – especially when it appears on the front page of the Friday treeware edition. I want to provide one more, which struck me as I showered this morning…
Continue readingLet’s try to preserve what we can in Mountainview
There were probably a few nostalgic tears shed this week for the Mountainview Hotel. That’s not including the folks at the local branch of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, who were likely gnashing their teeth over council’s decision on Monday night to accept a bid to tear down the building
Continue readingBuried in partisan dreck from local MP
It seems those wily Conservatives are at it again. Last week, I received two — TWO — of those odious tenpercenters at the villa from Simcoe-Grey MP Dr. Kellie Leitch; one on Thursday, and one on Friday. And, just to make sure I got the message, they were exactly the
Continue readingPigheaded…
OK, so I haven’t been here a whole heck of a lot lately, but there also hasn’t been a heck of a lot to boil my blood, either – at least nothing that I can say publicly. But… Monday night’s decision to not change the animal control rules and allow
Continue readingCleaning up the mess…
It’s not enough that this edition of Collingwood Town Council had to resolve the downtown patio issue, the Admiral Collingwood Place debacle, and the general financial mess left by the previous council. Now word comes down of one more mess: a commitment to cover any deficit for the Ontario Winter
Continue readingThe Admiral forum…
OK, if you want to post your thoughts on last night’s public meeting on the Heritage District Plan amendments to allow the Admiral project to go ahead, do so here. I’ll be posting in this spot on and off today, as the mood strikes… Certainly after last night’s meeting, there
Continue readingToday’s smile… at least for me…
Yes, once again, a bad blogger… but anyhoo… As I was banging out my brief package from Monday night’s council meeting, I happened to read over the staff discussion on the ‘naming policy’, and this little tidbit jumped out at me: Nominations of past/current employees for the Town of Collingwood
Continue readingApropos of nothing in particular…
I just picked up a Freedom of Information form from the Town of Collingwood. I’m still debating what to do with it. Any suggestions?
Continue readingAn admission… and a solution — maybe
According to my sources, my thoughts on allowing the building to go ahead — originally published on the blog on Friday — were offbase; based on the heritage district plan, you can’t build anything taller than three stories. The town can’t even issue a building permit for what Steve Assaff is proposing. So we’re between […]
Continue readingWhy is council letting impartiality go out the window with downtown development?
This will probably make me wildly unpopular. However, here’s the thing… While it’s great to see Admiral Collingwood Place moving ahead, with a very classy and elegant design, the question is: how far does town council have to fall over themselves in their enthusiasm to get this project done? I realize this council was mandated […]
Continue readingHere and there for a rainy Friday…
Geez, this weather sucks, especially when I’m riding the bicycle on a full-time basis. Anyhoo, some random nonsense for a grey and gloomy Friday afternoon – at least until I can hit the Huron Club… First off, so far, haven’t been able to spark enough interest in an Occupy Collingwood event; I thought with town […]
Continue readingBelieve it or not, the bureaucrats don’t always make things better…
So the ongoing saga of how Elections Ontario did everything but make elections easy in the riding of Simcoe-Grey continues. As writer Kristen Smith detailed two weeks ago in the treeware edition of the E-B, residents of Nottawa were told to traverse to Ravenna in order to cast a ballot in last Thursday’s election. Now, […]
Continue reading