Comment

The year that was

Posted: December 24, 2010 at 3:51 pm   /   Comment

It started with a decision. Actually it was the very last day of 2009 that Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) vice-chair Jyoti Zuidema dismissed an appeal made by Lyle McBurney and Jim McPherson seeking to erase the County’s historic ward boundaries for electoral purposes and redistribute the population in a way that would better balance each […]

1 Comment read more

Ice and water

Posted: December 17, 2010 at 4:18 pm   /   Comment

The DukeDome was supposed to close on Sunday. That was the plan. The ice plant was to shut down. The lights turned off and the doors locked. After serving this community in one form or another for nearly 80 years, and a touching sendoff on Friday, the DukeDome’s days were done. But late last week, […]

No Comments read more

The house that Jim built

Posted: December 10, 2010 at 4:51 pm   /   Comment

He was optimistic from the outset. Even as the ink on the report spelling the end of the DukeDome was drying, Jim Dunlop was already working to get the Wellington and District Community Centre rebuilt. Not every one was as confident. There were many good and some less good reasons to question the development of […]

No Comments read more

Fix the bylaw

Posted: December 3, 2010 at 4:43 pm   /   Comment

Mark Henry and Lynne Ellis want to abide by the law— but the law, in this case, is impossibly vague. It is now up to the new council—which gets to work next week—to fix it. Henry and Ellis operate Fields on West Lake between Bloomfield and Wellington. With much hard labour and many thousands of […]

3 Comments read more

The big lie

Posted: November 26, 2010 at 4:45 pm   /   Comment

If you oppose industrial wind energy you are, according to the McGuinty Liberals, in favour of coal-fired electricity— an energy source that kills and damages children’s lungs. Unless you support Dalton McGuinty’s plan to blot the horizon with wind turbines you are worse than a NIMBY— you are complicit in killing children. The shrillness and […]

6 Comments read more

Defining purpose

Posted: November 22, 2010 at 4:17 pm   /   Comment

What if you were asked to join an organization to give advice and no one asked your opinion? That seems to be the dilemma faced by the municipality’s Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC). The EAC was formed shortly after Mayor Leo Finnegan first took office in 2004. It has struggled ever since to find its purpose. […]

No Comments read more

On the beach

Posted: November 10, 2010 at 8:16 pm   /   Comment

I don’t know what I would do without Ralph Margetson—especially at this time of year. He has been such a rich store of knowledge and insight for me these past half dozen years. He is knowledgeable about a great many things, but particularly he helps me to understand what it was like to be a […]

No Comments read more

A treasure lost

Posted: November 5, 2010 at 2:29 pm   /   Comment

It was a particularly cool and crisp walk to work this morning. So clear the stars seem to pierce brilliant holes in the large inky fabric draped overhead. The patterns so clear and compelling one could not help but to pause and take it all in—if for but a moment. It is at these moments […]

No Comments read more

2,500 bales

Posted: October 29, 2010 at 1:37 pm   /   Comment

There will be plenty of time to dissect the results from Monday’s municipal election in future weeks—plenty of time to sort out what the electorate was saying and to whom. Instead I will use my space this week to line up behind the many folks so full of pride and gratitude this week to the […]

No Comments read more

Our choices

Posted: October 22, 2010 at 2:03 pm   /   Comment

As voters head to the polls The Times respectfully offers our picks to represent each ward for the next four years. WARD ONE PICTON – 2 seats to be elected Bev Campbell and Laverne Bailey are the incumbents in Picton. They are being challenged by Brian Marisett, Paul Morris, Doris Lane, Don Ward and Richard […]

1 Comment read more