Civic Affairs

[img_assist|nid=128|title=City police dispatchers, among the humans we like to talk to...|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=500|height=333]I do not wish to take sides in Brockville's ongoing policing debate. Let the OPP costing process continue, and let the hard numbers land where they may.

[img_assist|nid=126|title=Brockville blue|desc=Brockville Police Service Deputy Chief Lee MacArthur, left, Insp. Scott Fraser and Chief John Gardiner at the contact committee meeting Monday.|link=none|align=left|width=500|height=331]It may all come down to comfort level.

[img_assist|nid=124|title=City manager Bob Casselman, left, and Councillor David Beatty during the OPP contact committee meeting Monday.|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=500|height=405]Dear OPP skeptics: David Beatty is not out of control, and you should not hate him for joking about selling cop cars on eBay.

[img_assist|nid=3|title=Does Brockville loom large?|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=500|height=234]For a concise illustration of the challenge facing supporters of regional economic development, consider this:

[img_assist|nid=121|title=CRUZ chairman Wayne Blackwell, left, and Mayor David Henderson.|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=500|height=405]No one in the realm of politics is immune to the mystifying power of spin.

We who report and consume political news will sometimes fall victim to it, and the people who move and act within the world of politics – even municipal politics – will sometimes fall prey to the temptation to do it.

[img_assist|nid=18|title=Policing debate|desc=|link=none|align=middle|width=900|height=188]

[img_assist|nid=117|title=Ron Holman, left, and David Gordon|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=500|height=622]Was that a suggestion or a joke?

Or, for that matter, a grenade?

[img_assist|nid=115|title=Chamber of commerce president David Keenleyside|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=500|height=333]Those were laudable sentiments by Councillor Jason Baker, on the matter of Brockville's seating arrangement on the Economic Development Express.

[img_assist|nid=109|title=OPP analyst Sgt. Michael Milner, left, and Councillor Jason Baker.|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=500|height=336]When the Ontario Provincial Police analysts return, probably next month, with a fleshed-out presentation on the different options for policing Brockville, there will likely be two models under consideration.