> Salute to Lincoln, West Lincoln firefighters /Pgs 11-15 > Region launches waste collection app Pg 5 > Riley Michaels launches new tunes Pg 7 > Last week for DIA shopping spree promo Pg 17 Thursday, October 1, 2020 Vol. 9 Issue 23
www.wn3.ca 100% Niagara owned & operated.
Proudly serving Grimsby, Lincoln, West Lincoln & Winona
Circ: 26,529
Unearthed
An excavation team was at the Burgess property on Main Street at Nelles Road sifting through large parts of the yard earlier this month. Grimsby planning department’s Walter Basic said a Stage 3 archaeological assessment was underway - part of the requirements for the DeSantis application for the site. This follows a Stage 2 assessment which took place last Fall. Marks - Photo
Revamped twin towers garner positive comment Height reduced, rooms skyrocket, public access park added & parking requirements to be met By Mike Wiliscraft NewsNow With positive comments, innovative designs and new information aplenty at last week’s public meeting regarding the twin tower development proposal at the Casablanca Inn site, only one thing was missing; the public. With full houses, dozens of comments intense reviews now the norm at such matters of the planning process in Grimsby in recent years, last Thursday’s gathering held virtually on Zoom had none of that as the meeting - which included presentations by Town planning staff and the developer - lasted just over an hour. It has not been unusual for similar meetings to last 2-3 hours.
The meeting included a chunk of downtime as technological issues caused a considerable delay to the meeting start. Once it did, Mayor Jeff Jordan opened the proceedings by outlining its goal. “The basic premise of this open house is to provide the public with an opportunity to provide input on a proposed development application. To ensure a fair process, members of council are to hear public input, but not engage in debate about the merits of the application,” said Jordan. “As we navigate our first virtual open house meeting, we ask all participants for your patience. Each participant has 10 minutes to speak,
only one chance to speak.” The only problem is there were no speakers from the public. “What we found with today’s meeting, and I know this will probably come up from my fellow councillors as well, is that it’s not effective for public engagement. We struggled with technology at the beginning of this meeting. We’ve struggled to try to get the delegations who tried to participate to easily participate. And the people who could not participate by technology are looking for opportunities to have that conversation,” said Coun. Dorothy Bothwell. “I think that when we do our statutory public meeting which – whether it is in the near future as I am expect-
ing this developer is hoping to move quickly – that we structure that in such a way that, with COVID, I am sure we can have walk-in boards either at the Casablanca or at the Peach King Centre for a few hours so people can come in, provide their comments, speak to the applicant and have planning staff there to address their comments, too. Then we can shortly follow that with the statutory public meeting and incorporate the comments that are received. We really really have to get multiple public avenues for the public to participate in this.” Several other members of council agreed with Bothwell’s points See HOTEL, Page 2