Fail
The kindest thing that may be said about the County’s 2019 budget, just completed, is that a few more folks will become municipal employees. Beyond that, it is a full-on catastrophe. Never in the history of the amalgamated County has a council transferred as much wealth from its residents to the coffers of the municipality, […]
Build
For eight years we have known that the County’s population is declining. There was denial at first. We saw so many new folks arriving, it didn’t make sense. But we weren’t tracking those leaving. Then the trend was confirmed in 2016. There was no more denying it. Years have slipped by and we have failed […]
2021
Mayor Steve Ferguson admitted during his first New Year’s Levee that he is still adjusting to giving speeches. Fair-minded observers of our local government may be inclined, therefore, to make some allowance for the massive oversight in his remarks on Sunday. But the truth is, that we are running out of time to be fair […]
Go slow
My wife, Kathleen, and I own and operate a small inn in Wellington—three guest suites, growing to seven later this year. We made our original investment in 2009 based partly on my reporting on a succession of municipal studies that pointed to a shortfall of roofed accommodations in Prince Edward County. It seemed an opportunity. […]
Wasted resource
The County possesses a vast well of human talent and energy. There are a great many folks living in this community with the know-how, energy and eagerness to participate, and the time to do, build, design, craft and manage things. They want to help. They want to participate. They want to contribute to the place […]
Passing
Dave Brown was the glue that held Wellington Dukes diaspora together. He made it his business to know what happened to the boys who became men long after they stopped wearing the Dukes jersey. No one would have more enjoyed the alumni game played in Wellington a week and a half ago—a gathering of players […]
Fresh start
Our new council has an opportunity. It has a chance to radically change the culture of local government in Prince Edward County. For the better. It is much needed. For far too long, County council saw its role as reactionary—responding to files that landed on the council table rather than initiating policy debate or setting […]
Gravity’s goose egg
My good friend, I’ll call him Gord, had one of those experiences this past week—one of those experiences I expect we all encounter from time to time, but don’t choose to disclose widely, if at all. A series of bad decisions, made with perfectly fine intentions, that turns terribly sour and then gets worse. There […]
Calming humps
Sometimes it feels as though our municipal public works folks are just messing with us. Tucked near the end of a long agenda at last week’s committee of the whole meeting was a proposal to install speed bumps—no, traffic calming speed humps—on Union Road. Allow that to simmer a moment. Union Road is a wee […]
Next steps
What happens next is key. It will surely define the course of County government over the next four years. The choices your council makes in these next few weeks will tell us if it can learn from its missteps or whether it will hunker down in defiance, and become a captive of the machine. It […]