Civic Affairs

When city council added the Facade Improvement Grant Program to its Downtown Community Improvement Plan (CIP) last year, the reviews were mostly positive.

There were, in fact, only two votes against the series of changes to the CIP.

It was hard not to see it as symbolic.

There was Councillor David Beatty, one of two council representatives on the Aquatarium steering committee, bringing council up to speed on the latest delays to the project.

It didn't take long for the latest step in Brockville's OPP costing process to generate plenty of online debate. 

[img_assist|nid=75|title=Legal angle|desc=City solicitor John Simpson, left, speaks with city manager Bob Casselman on Tuesday.|link=none|align=right|width=500|height=315]So there was an interesting moment during Tuesday's special council meeting when it seemed like the coming public meeting over the rezoning of Water Street will have absolutely no meaning.

During the course of the debate over the agreement with Blockhouse Square Development Ltd., the discussion turned on the desirability of a public meeting before council approves the deal.

Some people figured the public meeting that will be required to rezone the land, once the deal is inked and it gets to that point, should be enough.

Not for Councillor Mary Jean McFall, however.

City solicitor John Simpson pointed to the clause in which the city pledges to support the project in principle.

[img_assist|nid=73|title=Downtown bike parking|desc=Kathleen Lowe, of the Brockville cycling advisory committee, places her bicycle by one of the bike parking rings placed on King Street to lure more cyclists downtown.|link=none|align=right|width=600|height=398]Among the things I didn't get a chance to report this week: the first week in June will be Bike to Work Week.

Now, I'd be more than glad to bike to work, especially since in my case it would be more a matter of blocks than kilometres.

The trouble is, if I am suddenly called to cover a fire in, say, Athens, it would be a pretty long haul on a bicycle, toting the camera bags and notepads, and I'd be sure to bust the deadline before getting back to the newsroom.

For people in more predictable professions, though, biking to work sounds like a worthy idea.

As does the ongoing initiative to promote bicycle parking downtown.

One has to give city council its due: the renegotiated version of the Water Street condominium development is a commendable piece of bargaining.

[img_assist|nid=67|title=Water Street project|desc=Revised artist's concept.|link=none|align=left|width=500|height=249]As I noted in the previous entry, city council spent much of last night behind closed doors refining the Water Street development deal.

It turns out it was all a matter of communication and clarification, with only some minor tweaks necessary to keep everybody happy.

What those tweaks are, and how happy everybody really is, are some of the things I hope to find out in short order.

But if it was all really a communication issue, then why not improve communication all around by making the rest of this process public?

Until I get those details, I leave you with some corny train humour.

[img_assist|nid=67|title=Water Street project|desc=Revised artist's concept.|link=url|align=right|width=500|height=249]It turns out the most interesting part of tonight's city council meeting, once the Railway Tunnel induction ceremony is done, might be the part we can't report.

A good debate on doctor recruitment funding notwithstanding, the weightiest item on tonight's agenda is the in-camera discussion on Blockhouse Square Development Ltd.'s proposed $58-million condominium and commercial project on Water Street.

The project's first stage is a four-level podium on which the remaining floors – levels five through nine – are to rest. That is to include 65 residential units; 437 parking spots and some 202 lockers; 16 commercial units; and a common area.

[img_assist|nid=63|title='NCR' director|desc=John Kastner speaks to the audience at the Brockville Arts Centre Thursday evening.|link=none|align=left|width=500|height=409]Is Sean Clifton evil or ill?

That's the question posed by director John Kastner in his documentary NCR: Not Criminally Responsible.

Along the way, and quite surprisingly, he also manages to show us Sean Clifton is funny.

Kastner warned the audience at Thursday night's Brockville Arts Centre screening in advance about the humour in this documentary.

A good idea, since the incident at the centre of this film, Clifton's brutal and near-fatal stabbing of a young woman in Cornwall, is not a laughing matter.

“It's OK to laugh,” Kastner told the crowd. “Mental patients are people too.”

[img_assist|nid=61|title=Michael Veenstra|desc=Michael Veenstra speaks to city council's economic development and planning committee on Tuesday.|link=node|align=right|width=500|height=332]Sometimes you have to work at finding an excuse to punt an unpleasant chore down the road. At other times, the excuse just presents itself.

City councillors did not have to find any justifications, this time around, for their latest delay of the development charges debate.

In December, they put off the difficult decision on whether or not to reinstate the fees to builders by arguing developers needed more time to study the issue.

This time, the reason was the requisite consultant's report, the quote for which has gone stale.

There's no disputing we need a fresh quote, since the Hemson Consulting proposal is based on 2010 figures. The question should be why the city didn't suggest getting the fresh quotes in December, knowing we'd have to have the debate anyway.