Closing all our libraries, museums, arenas, parks and town halls will not fix the financial problems this community and 114 others in eastern Ontario are facing. Erasing the history, the traditions and treasure trove of stories and records that tell us who we are and where we came from, will, in even the most optimistic [...]
There was an audible shudder of disbelief when Bev Campbell put up a graphic on the screen in the hall at Bloomfield purporting to show property taxes declining over the past four years. It couldn’t be true. Everyone in that room knew their property taxes had risen—and risen sharply over the past four years. So [...]
Generally speaking we want to believe our government is trying to do the right thing. We want to believe they are listening. We may not always agree with their politics or choices, and we may wish they spent our tax dollars with a bit more regard, but most folks don’t expect their government to actively [...]
How long will council tolerate the incompetence of the leadership of its Recreation, Parks and Culture department? How bad must things become before council concludes that enough is enough? Councillor Diane O’Brien and others suggest the County must look at selling the brand new Wellington and District Community Centre to spare ratepayers the outrageous amount [...]
On the surface it was yet another gathering of folks increasingly anxious about industrial wind factories being erected in their midst. There were those sounding the alarm about the hazard wind turbines pose to migrating birds, bats and other animals. Those offended by the disregard shown for the variety of species and sheer quantity of [...]
It is a story of neighbours who didn’t like each other. One afternoon in May, tensions boiled to confrontation. One brought words to the fight—the other brought a 4,500 lb truck. Moments later Jeff Vader lay dying on Kelly Road. Now Eric Menard faces up to 14 years in jail charged with dangerous driving causing [...]
Council ought to have taken the offer. It is about to grapple with some very hard choices about what this municipality does and what it can afford to do (see story page 3). Yet a majority of council has opted to ignore its senior manager’s advice to engage residents in the decision making. Instead these [...]
Did you know that if you live on a couple acres on Gilead, Royal or Doxsee Roads you can’t raise a chicken? Or a pig? Or a goat? You may not want to do any of these things—but does it make sense to bar folks from growing food in rural Prince Edward County? Growing up [...]
Over the Christmas holidays wind power generators in the United Kingdom were paid more than $1.5 million to unplug their turbines from the electricity grid. It seems a steady, stiff breeze blew off the North Sea for much of the time producing lots of power—but power it couldn’t use. The British, it turns out, haven’t [...]
It should be easier. Most folks have little reason to deal with local government in their daily lives—except of course to pay taxes. We may grumble about snow clearing, sidewalk conditions or garbage pick up schedules. We may even pick up the phone and unload our grievances upon our local councillor. But that is usually [...]