It appears the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference at the beginning of this week in Ottawa proved productive for many communities in attendance.
In the case of the St. Thomas delegation, the gathering had Mayor Joe Preston smiling on more than one occasion.
At the beginning of June, we outlined some of the key meetings Preston and company had lined up with provincial ministers and the link to that item is below.
We caught up with Preston yesterday (Friday) to get an executive summary of what transpired, from a St. Thomas perspective.
“I took a very powerful delegation with me,” praised Preston.
Along with Preston were city manager Michael Bradley and councillors Lori Baldwin-Sands and Steve Peters.
The latter was of particular value, suggested Preston.
“It gave us a familiarity that really helped us. Whether it’s with the health minister on physician recruitment or the associate minister for mental health on rehab and detox and the things we are working on there.
“I’m not sure that it could have gone better. I smiled a lot at AMO and we had a lot of meetings with ministers including the Minister of Sport (Neil Lumsden, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport) about our proposed recreational complex (the community/aquatic centre).”
Funding is now being made available to municipalities for recreational purposes like the proposed community centre, however, the drawback is the project would have to be completed by 2027 and the city has not made a serious commitment at this point.
“We have got to continue with more planning,” stressed Preston, “and we’re going to work our best on this but that (the available funding) is going to be extremely oversubscribed.”
As announced in this year’s budget, the province is making $200 million available to help communities revitalize existing community sport and recreation infrastructure and build new facilities.
Preston advised, “We will continue to move forward in the way our Strategic Plan reads it to design the where and what it looks like and what should be in it and we will do it right.
“Over time as our city grows and our revenues grow from new industries we have attracted, we will be able to do great things.
“But, sometimes it is not today and not even tomorrow, but you plan it right so you do it right.
“Some of these large recreational complexes are very expensive and we got the minister’s (Lumsden) thoughts and he knows St. Thomas is interested.”
Moving on to meetings with other ministries, Preston zeroed in on the dialogue with Michael Tibollo, Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions.
“It was a meeting with myself, the Warden of Oxford County, the County of Elgin Warden and our delegation on an area we’d like to see more time spent and it’s on youth and preventing youth addictions.
“We’re selling it now far more as an economic benefit than as a recreational benefit and it is really working.”
“It was a great conversation and a promise that Minister Tibollo will visit St. Thomas very shortly.”
With a regional bus service now in play, maintaining that service through Middlesex Connects has taken on added importance and thus the meeting with the Minister of Transportation, Prabmeet Sarkaria to discuss regional transportation.
The focus is the one-year pilot project that connects St. Thomas with London and Dorchester, including a stop at the Amazon Fulfillment Centre north of Talbotville.
“It was a very large delegation,” noted Preston, “because we brought the Warden from Middlesex County, our County of Elgin Warden, myself, Mayor Josh Morgan from London and it’s tough to say ‘No’ when you’ve got that type of power sitting across the table.
“We talked about how regional transportation is maybe better than just about anything they are doing about rapid transit in other communities that are much larger.
“Sometimes it is easier to get to Toronto than it is to move from some part of Elgin into Middlesex. And so, they are very cognizant that (the new regional service) needs to stay in place and they are working with us now on ensuring we pass through the pilot project, even if it is just an extension, but to formalize it would be even better.
“We’ve got to do this from a regional point of view. The transit system now stops at Maple Leaf Foods (in south London) so it’s bringing people from St. Thomas to London, but it’s also bringing people from London into our industrial park.
“We’re selling it now far more as an economic benefit than as a recreational benefit and it is really working.”
Next week, we’ll continue with other areas the St. Thomas delegation concentrated on including mental health and addiction, housing and homelessness.
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A GREEN LIGHT AND MORE DOLLARS FOR NEW BELMONT SCHOOL
Four years after the announcement of a new Belmont public school, the Thames Valley District School Board this week was given the green light to begin the tender process.
The province’s Ministry of Education also announced an additional $9.8 million in funding to cover the increased construction costs.
With a capacity of 507 students, the total investment is now $21.9 million.
That’s up almost $10 million from a year ago when the province announced an increase in size from the original enrolment of 345 students and a price tag of $12.2 million.
The school board will officially go to tender once it finalizes servicing solutions with the Municipality of Central Elgin.
In a media release, Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Rob Flack noted, “This is another important investment in education for Elgin-Middlesex-London. Belmont has a growing population coupled with strong economic growth, which is in line with what we’re experiencing in Elgin and Middlesex counties.”
The facility is expected to open in time for the 2026-27 school year.
It was to originally have opened for the 2023-24 school year, however, the school board and the developer failed to reach common ground on land needed for the building in the sixth phase of the Craigholme Estate subdivision on Concession 7, west of Belmont Road.
In August 2022 Thames Valley District School Board trustees voted to acquire land for the new Belmont school through the Expropriations Act.
On January 31 of last year, the trustees approved the final steps toward the land expropriation process.
And in August of 2023, the school board announced it had acquired the land.
So, is part of that additional $9.8 million in funding to cover costs associated with the expropriation process?
In making the funding announcement in 2020, then MPP Jeff Yurek noted, “It means a new, safe facility for young learners in the South Dorchester, Westminster and Belmont communities. It means that Springfield and New Sarum students will continue to benefit from the tradition of great things happening in those schools.”
This larger school will consolidate enrollment from South Dorchester Public School, with students from Northdale Central Public School, River Heights Public School, Westminster Central Public School and Davenport Public School attendance areas.
Yurek continued, “It means that rural children will not spend a significant portion of the day on a school bus and instead can learn and grow as part of their home communities.
“And finally, it means East and Central Elgin remain viable places for those students to grow up in and build a future.”
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FUTURE OF THE WATERWORKS PARK DAM
At the Aug. 12 meeting, council authorized staff to proceed with investigating costs associated with a dam assessment at Waterworks Park.
According to the report to council, the dam dates back to 1920 and the last assessment was undertaken in 2000 and revealed “the dam was in a state of advanced deterioration.”
Twenty-four years later there now seems to be a sense of urgency in Adrienne Lacey Griffin’s report.
As manager of parks and forestry, she stresses it is imperative to reassess the dam’s condition, undertake modelling to forecast the potential impact of a full failure of the dam and determine appropriate remediation measures.
It is not to say maintenance has not been undertaken in the intervening years.
In 2021 the Lily Ponds were dredged and two years later drainage around the ponds was addressed to reduce flooding.
Once the dam assessment and flood modelling are completed, a consultant is to be hired to develop a long-term landscape revitalization plan and review the merits of replacing or removing the dam.
All of which, advises Lacey Griffin, is to “Ensure Waterworks Park remains a premier destination for residents and visitors while honouring its historical significance to the City of St. Thomas.
As Coun. Steve Peters noted the Lily Ponds are a much-loved feature of the park.
“I’m not an engineer,” admitted Peters, “but I understand the hydraulics of water and that dam maintains the level of the big oval reservoir at Waterworks Park.
“The level of the water in the reservoir maintains the levels at the ponds.
“So, with the easy option of dam removal, we lose the reservoir and we lose the ponds. That’s where I’m supportive of seeing this move forward because it may not be as simple as taking the dam out.
“How do we maintain the ponds?”
Council did approve proceeding with outlined actions and costs associated with the project will be included in the 2025 capital budget.
IS FOUR BETTER THAN TWO ON FAIRVIEW AVENUE?
Major improvements to Fairview Avenue are planned for next year, impacting the roadway between Elm and Talbot streets.
Work is to include removal of the bridge over the former railroad right-of-way at Talbot Street, intersection improvements and enhancements to the active transportation network.
Fairview is a busy traffic corridor with an average annual daily traffic volume of 8,000 near Elm Street up to 18,000 vehicles per day north of Wellington Street.
The proposed cross-section would see the roadway reduced from four lanes to two with a two-way centre turn lane.
This would allow for a separated cycle lane on each side of the roadway.
This led Mayor Joe Preston to question the justification for losing two lanes given the population projections over the next couple of decades.
A roundabout is not recommended for the intersection at Fairview Avenue and Talbot Street due to vehicle volume.
A future east-west multi-use path is planned for the former CASO railway corridor ultimately connecting the downtown area with the Yarmouth Yards industrial park.
A pedestrian tunnel is recommended under Fairview Avenue once the bridge is removed.
Coun. Peters called the report “interesting” and added Fairview Avenue was rebuilt less than 30 years ago “and here we are considering spending a significant amount of money to narrow the road.
“If we’re doing this in one, fell swoop it is going to take a significant bite out of the capital budget.”
Moving forward, Peters would like to see options presented by staff on proceeding with the project in stages.
Coun. Jim Herbert, meantime, prefers a roundabout at the Fairview Avenue and Talbot Street intersection, a daunting prospect at best.
A public information centre is planned for November of this year.
So, expect major traffic disruptions during the 2025 road construction season.
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And a reminder, I can be heard weekday afternoons as news anchor and reporter on 94.1 myFM in St. Thomas. As always, your comments and input are appreciated.
I doubt we will see any work on redoing Fairview in 2025 if they aren’t even having an open house until November 2024! Unless of course the Open House is just a show and tell of what is already out to tender.