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Further, the health and safety issues you raised also do not exist Uhus we must question your motivation to falsify a bylaw, along with health and safety issues when none of you has visited the park despite being invited I have been to this extremely closeâ€"knit community and find it to be perfectly acceptable, suitable, and well maintained. Therefore. I demand to know why you are forcing fine, upstandâ€" ing, tax paying citizens from their homes where they have lived safety and comfortably for the last 30 What happened to the Ford fight? th all the potential litigation W‘Walerlou might be embroiled in over the next few months, wouldn‘t it be nice to know where the city stands in its lawâ€" suit with former treasurer John Ford? It‘s been six months since the city decided to file a $31 million suit against Ford hoping to recoup some of the cost of the RIM Park financing fiasco entered into under his watch. With all the big fish to fry, the city decided to concentrate its legal fireâ€" power on Ford. Under the existing formula, the Waterloo Region District school board has been forced to take money from its existing facilities maintenance budget to offset annuâ€" al transportation deficits â€" despite distance policies which are far tougher than its Catholic counterâ€" That deficit has been due in part to the high proportion of special needs students within the board, because the existing formula has _ Further, why are you picking on those of fixed or limited income Say goodbye to local voter confidence trailer park. There was no bvlaw ifound) requiring the residents to vacate the premises for any period of time. Most Catholic students would remain unaffected n open letter to Mr. D. A.‘I\;[‘cl.ean on his comments (in e Record recently) to leave Waterioo city council alone and give them a chance to fix the problem they made and not to add to their woes. Continued from page 10 Well Mr. McLean, on the platâ€" form the mayor and his fellow councillors made before they were elected seem to make sense to the voters at that time,. but since then [11 months ago) we have lost our confidence in them by being misled and the poor judgement they have Council should get a taste of the streets But to make the suit truly worthâ€" ou, (Waterloo city councili, blatantly mistepresented the facts regarding the Green Acre CHRON such as the elderly. disabled, and/or financially challenged park resiâ€" dents? On Sept. 3, 2004, Lissued a verbal challenge for you to live by your policies and leave your homes to spend 60 days living on the street. Waterloo will manage just fine with out you in City Hall so you really have no excuse. You will leave with nothing and your only source of income will be to panhandle in the downtown core. The Chronicle contacted Ford last week and he‘s not talking, saying it will all come out in due time. From your repeated failures it is nbvious that you are not doing your homework. Further, you are not learning from your mistakes. Perhaps, you would learn better by experience I doubt that you will obtain the over $300 per day that panhandlers were reported to receive, although real Canadians take better care of their own then the government elected to serve them. Still, I expect you will receive a muchâ€"needed while, the former treasurer needed to seek some protection under the city‘s insurance policy under the errors and omissions clause. And now, six months into the case, we still don‘t know if Ford‘s filed his statement of defence, and whether he has sought out this liability insurâ€" ance. While Waterloo‘s former chief financial officer might be expected to dodge those questions, how about The new formula not only factors in the higher costs of special needs transportation, _ but _ makes allowances for rural and Northern communities, where we have had to recognize that provincewide stanâ€" dardization may not be possible. I take serious issue with the conâ€" tention that Catholic boards are jusâ€" tified in their historically more genâ€" erous transportation policies because their schools are further displayed to the voters. You ask us to give them a chance to straighten things out until 2006 when we the voters go back to the __ You speak as this is going to be a minor payoff. Brace yourselves fellow citizens, this will cost us big time, as the mayor and councillors you have stripped Mr. Robertson from his employment in his profession in the near future. never compensated for the higher costs associated with special needs transportation. This leaves me with the opinion that the present mayor and councilâ€" COMMENT Morris Manning, the lawyer charged to make the city‘s case, hasn‘t come forward at all to say how the case is coming along. The Chronicle can‘t even get him to return a phone As for Mayor Herb Epp. referring all questions to the city‘s lawyers is fine if they‘ll answer them. But if they don‘t, Mr. Mayor, it‘s your turn to step up to the plate. _ The public deserves to know where the issue stands. kick in the pants. You will be arrested by the police and charged for panhandling. After which, you will be sent to the social services. As I indicated when 1 issued this challenge I doubt you have the courage to take it up. You have, as yet. failed to respond. 1 doubt you even have the guts to take this chal lenge for six days. Therefore, I dare you to give up your homes to live on the streets and learn what life is like for thaose affected by your policies. I tripleâ€" dog dare you to caome out and meet your Waterloo. the city‘s solicitor who is handling the In this way you will learn what it is like to live on a fixed income and have the government dictate where and how you live I‘m quite sure that the new forâ€" mula isn‘t perfect, and that there are bugs to be worked out. But it is a huge step in the right direction. Even if Catholic boards must become less generous with their walking distance policies in order to create a common standard, the majority of their students now entiâ€" tled to transportation would remain unaffected by the change. lors did not know what this partâ€" time job entailed. I ask you Mr. McLean a simple question: what would you sooner hear, a lie that brings a smile to your face or the truth that brings a tear? apart geographically. If this is the case, why did they run in the first place? No job if done right is easy, it takes planning, expeâ€" rience and knowledge of the task ahead of you. David Stuivenberg Howard Brown Waterloo Tracy Morency Waterioo However, maintaining our distincâ€" . |(RMES3 tiveness does not need to get in the e > f way of making good decisions about f '& 20 how the city is managed. In my view, ; *7 we have nothing to fear from a joint . (@\@ A library, shared road services and | ® lt . increased coâ€"operation with the City % ~â€"~ & of Kitchener. In fact, I believe that by é sharing services, Waterloo could be | \ made even stronger. Sharing some SEAN services with Kitchener will save tax dollars and the savings can be used in | STRICKLAND ways to further our distinctiveness, "â€"â€"======â€"â€"=â€"«â€"â€" The old chestnut of "being swallowed up" by Kitchener is passé. Waterloo needs to look beyond the horizon and develop strategies that will shape our future, rather than allowing the events to shape us. Of the three main urban areas in the region, Waterloo has the least land when compared to Kitchener and Cambridge. Furthermore, Waterloo is using up what land we do have availâ€" able at a faster pace than the other cities. The net result is that by approximately 2010 (if the economy continues at its current pace) Waterloo will virtually have no land left to develop. What then? With no land, housing will stop, commercial development will stop and the new tax growth that comes with development will stop also. Without land, Waterloo will experience near zero growth in tax revenue, but city services will be increasing at the cost of inflation, or better. To cover the shortfall, between zero property tax growth and inflation property taxes on current residents will increase at rates faster than we are currently experiencing. Geographically, we have challenges. To the north. we are already developed to the Woolwich boundary; to the east. we will soon be at the Grand River; to the south is Kitchener; and to the west, we are rapidly approaching the Wilmat Line The official plan of the region makes it very difficult for Waterlao to develop outside of our prescribed area. The most natural direction for Waterloo to expand would be west to St. Agatha, but, according to the official plan, this is very difficult to do â€" but not impossible. Given that the preferred solution of regional amaigamation is unfortunately a nonâ€"starter, Waterloo has two choices to control our future: begin to look at ways to expand our existing borders to accommodate more growth, and/or begin to reduce the cost of local government through more shared services with the City of Kitchener. Either way, we need to start planâ€" ning for the day when all the land is gone. Another way, in which we can make government more effiâ€" cient and avoid the whole amalgamation debate, is to pursue strategic opportunities with the City of Kitchener. With both cities looking to build a new library, this would be the perfect time to construct a shared library and fully integrate library services. Another method to streamline local government would be for Waterloo and Kitchener to combine their roads departments so that the building, maintaining and snow removal would be handled by one department, not two. This would also save money on the capital budget since the deployâ€" ment of large road equipment could be optimized. Waterloo Citizens have always been concerned about being to closely aligned with Kitchener. In fact, local residents have a deep sense of pride and accomplishment about the unique things that make us different from Kitchener. Our size, our socioâ€"ecoâ€" . @@Retee o nomics, demographics, and the STRICKLN ’ impact of our two universities will [ J l always distinguish us from Kitchener. . | SPEAKING Land locked Hopefully the Light Rail Transit system is approved and more development will occur in our core as housing becomes intensified along the rail corridor. But even if the LKT is sucâ€" cessful, the increased tax revenue from the intensified developâ€" ment will be pale in comparison to the increased revenue from new houses and commercial properties. When Waterloo runs out of land, the LRT will not be our saviour Izsl week 1 wrote about a couple of methods by which the ‘ity of Waterloo could save on expenses and help reduce our property tax bills. Amalgamation of all eight local municiâ€" palities is the ideal way to maintain service levels and reduce property taxes. Unfortunately, without provincial legislation, this is unlikely to occur. Proud to be Waterloo Reducing taxes and planning for the future Eâ€"mail you} questions/comments to sean@seanstrickâ€" Fhios ‘ AEal)