Black hole
Things have improved at Shire Hall. While this corner tends to trade in the aspects of local government that need attention—habits and priorities that may be out of step with the residents and the economy— this focus can obscure the huge strides Shire Hall has made in 25 years. It has learned and become proficient […]
Gang of fourteen
Cows have gone rogue in Prince Edward County. It was bound to happen. When you’ve spent your career snorting, chasing clowns, and flinging young men off your back, a few rolling acres of grass just won’t cut it anymore. Once you’ve felt the warm glow of a raucous crowd cheering your every kick and pivot, […]
Collectors
The County has a hoarding problem. Or, more precisely, County Council has a hoarding problem. It’s not knickknacks or keepsakes crowding out our shared living spaces; instead, it is land and buildings. Like piles of old newspapers no one has looked at or thought about for years, Council clings to scattered bits of property. Many […]
Relationshipping
Relationships are peculiar things. One side may feel things are going great, while the other stews in discontent. Each smiles as they pass the other. One oblivious, the other not quite so unhappy as to make it a thing—to risk the conflagration that would follow. Both have learned that ‘talking about it’ doesn’t produce lasting […]
Fire
Let’s talk about fire. According to the fire chief, our municipality is juggling machetes. Only vastly more and steady funding will save us from being cut to bits. End of discussion. Questions about new trucks are met by accusations Council doesn’t respect its firefighters. Questions about soaring training budgets are countered with allegations the County […]
Hapless
Larry dreamed of muscle cars. Posters of Mustangs, Corvette Stingrays and Thunderbirds adorned his bedroom wall as a youth. But the Pontiac GTO stole his heart—the car Reggie Dunlop drove in the movie Slapshot. So it was that in his 44th year, Larry had a good run of business and rewarded himself by hiring an […]
Trending badly
How should we think about County budgets? Should we bother with them at all? Will it make a difference? If so, how do we wade through 67 pages of an operations budget and a 276-page capital budget? Without a finance background or accounting training? Or amphetamines? As a letter writer observed last week, Shire Hall […]
Me first
The headline was familiar. “County to demolish old DukeDome for affordable housing.” Clicking on the link produced no more information—an empty regurgitation of the headline’s assertion. Though it read as imminent, the headline might have been written many times over the past 14 years. And was. Plans were drawn up to tear down the Wellington […]
Without a net
Much of what Shire Hall has planned for this place for the next 10 to 25 years is predicated on growth— more houses and more people. These plans rely on many more people coming to live here to fund big infrastructure spending— roads, bridges, waterworks and such. Shire Hall is increasingly walking a very high […]
Feelings
How big is it? How big was it? How big will it be? Don’t we need answers to these questions before tinkering with our economy? Last week, Council considered but ultimately rejected a notion to increase the municipal accommodations tax—a tax applied to accommodation providers as a proxy for the entire tourism sector in Prince […]