>Unrau takes over as CCWN installs new slate of officers Pg 5 > Inaugural KIDS bird count hosted Pg. 6 > Planning a wedding? Pg. 8-9 > Enough is enough on CoGen: reader Pg. 15 Thursday, January 26, 2017 Vol. 5 Issue 38
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West Lincoln MURS plan offside: Bylsma By Mike Williscraft NewsNow After a 15 minutes discussion about whether or not he could ask any questions, West Lincoln Coun. Dave Bylsma voiced several concerns with the townships processes, calling some actions “serious transgressions”. The core topic of the debate dealt with the township’s plan to spend $23.6 million on a design/build multiuse recreational facility (MURS). The process has been mired in controversy, including a complete reboot of the plan in 2016. After a $14 million plan was rejected due to high cost, West Lincoln Council approved the expenditure of $23.6 million last October. What was voted on and approved by council is not the issue Bylsma has, rather he says many facets of the “Plan B” approved by council have been altered with no discussion, justification or approval by council. He also noted the “tight schedule” has magnified the issues significantly limiting
chances for questions and dissemination of information to the public. “We’re getting the bum’s rush and making costly mistakes we could be paying for for 30 years,” said Bylsma. “I’ve been looking for an opportunity to speak to something very important to our community and I’m not getting that opportunity.” Among Bylsma’s concerns were major changes in the design concept circulated to the public which included a walking track, bandshell and a greenhouse as well as mentioning a museum. “All those were in Plan A. We agreed to go with Plan B. The greenhouse was never discussed in any public forum. It was only briefly discussed in camera. Why did that go out? Who made that decision?...It was not discussed in these chambers,” said Bylsma. Several members of council questioned Bylsma for bringing up these issues at a council meeting as opposed to a sub-committee See MURS, Page 2
Helping hands
Starfish Nicaragua participants, Suzy Campbell and Raylene Ross mix concrete for the floor of a shed on their latest trip. A gala fundraiser is planned for the organization this Saturday at St. Andrews Anglican Church Hall in Grimsby. See Page 3 for more details.
CoGen unit
Grimsby spends another $100K Grimsby’s CoGen power generator will take another $100,000 investment to conform to Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change guidelines. Council voted last week at its Jan. 16 meeting to erect a sound barrier wall on the front lawn of town
hall to screen the CoGen unit from adjacent neighbourhood. Council mandated last fall that the unit would only operate three months per year – December to February. Last fall, council approved up to $50,000 for an analysis and “silencer” to be added to
the unit in an attempt to get it to conform to the MoE guidelines. In a Jan. 3 report, public works director Bob LeRoux noted, “Unfortunately, the noise testing failed to meet the requirements and the Town’s Noise Consultant was commissioned to design
noise attenuation walls that would allow these facilities to continue to operate and meet MoE requirements.” The work will involve removing some of the existing cement work, replacing chain link fence around it and adding new entrance gates.