Sunday June 10, 2018

Ladies and Gentlemen

Another great Butter Tart Festival has wrapped up with many of us still coming down from that sugary high. Estimates are that somewhere near 200,000 butter tarts were on sale and 50,000 plus visitors. Official word has yet to come.  A big thank-you to Karen Mealing and her team who pulled this off without a hitch.  Making Midland proud.

The Week Ahead

Monday June 11^th at 5:00 pm is the AGM for the MPUC shareholder (the Town). The MPUC sale to Newmarket-Tay is still not closed as we await the OEB decision. Cannot believe it is taking this long. At 7:00 pm is the Town’s General Committee meeting including:

-       Progress report on our Midland Forward initiative

-       Direction on surplus lands, specifically the potential sale of the Parks Depot on Fourth St. and the Works Depot on Ontario St.

-       Direction on our new procurement by-law – how we go about buying things in our Town

-       Terms of Reference for some of our 30 plus committees and Boards

On Tuesday the 12^th County Council takes place at 9:00 am in Midlhurst.  A number of interesting items that may impact Midland:

-       Approval of new organics site on Horseshoe Valley Road

-       Discussion of coordinating all emergency services in North Simcoe

-       By-law for the new inter-urban transit – the first leg being the Barrie to Midland link. One of the new Simcoe County LINX Transit Service buses will be on display at the County. Our Midland-Barrie route is scheduled for launch on August 7th, 2018

At 2:00 pm the Community Safety Task Force meets at the Town. Then at 7:30 pm Dr. Keith Rose hosts - OUR HEALTH: SPIRITUALITY & WELL-BEING  at the MCC. A sold out night but walk-ins may still be available. Those who wish to attend can come to the entrance to Rotary Hall at the MCC, where seating will be on a first-come first-served basis.

Wednesday the 13^th invites you to celebrate Seniors Month. The Midland Seniors Council is hosting a free noon lunch at the NSSRC.  Right after that from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm the Midland Library is launching a new Seniors’ Drop-In. Come for an afternoon of companionship, conversations and fun!  Every other Wednesday, starting June 13^th, and it’s free.

At 7:30 pm A Day in the Life returns to the MCC.  Fred’s guest is Dr. Dianne Saxe, the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (ECO), a tough but fair watchdog over Ontario’s environmental, energy and climate performance. Prior to her appointment in December 2015, Commissioner Saxe was one of Canada’s most respected environmental lawyers. Commissioner Saxe has been recognized as one of the world’s top 25 environmental lawyers.

On Thursday June 14^th at 10:00 am, the first Community Safety Task Force workshop takes place at the Town. This meeting will invite key stakeholders, such as the Library, the OPP and Guesthouse to the table.  The Task Force is going to use a number of methods to get your input on our downtown safety situation including an online survey, a public Town Hall scheduled for June 20, stakeholder workshops and one-on-one interviews - a lot of information gathering this month. All meetings are open to the public. The online survey should be available this Monday.

And from 10:00 am to noon EarlyON hosts its annual family picnic at Little Lake Park.

Friday the 15^th it’s back to Midhurst for a meeting of the County’s Affordable Housing Advisory Committee. The Committee will receive a report on the recent “Place in Time” count that enumerated the homeless population in our area.  Also the Committee will propose a date for all of us to hear about the Federal/Provincial approach to the National Housing Strategy - flowing $13B over 10 years into affordable housing projects.  And at noon the Chamber of Commerce invites you to a public BBQ on the Town Dock.

Week - End

Saturday June 16

-       2:00 pm onward - Party of the Dock returns with a full day of music - https://www.partyonthedock.ca/

Council Issues Update

Downtown Safety

The Task Force is underway but not quite as planned. Due to the aggressive timeframe it has not yet been able to retain the services of an external consultant. So in the short term the many agency reps on the Task Force have taken up the challenge and will direct the initial Problem Statement phase. Another example of our community working together.

Gord McKay

The Year for Forging Our Future - 2018