We learned this week that policing services at the Volkswagen EV battery plant scheduled to begin production in 2027 will be provided by an OPP tactical unit.
The decision was made at a meeting in Toronto attended by St. Thomas Mayor and police board vice-chairman Joe Preston, former St. Thomas Police Chief Chris Herridge and current Police Chief Marc Roskamp.
We can assume Preston was representing the city in his capacity as mayor as the police board was not formally invited to the meeting.
Why would they have been?
This policing directive was a foregone conclusion administered at the provincial level.
Although initially hesitant to confirm, Preston stressed the OPP policing request came from the German auto manufacturer.
Tag Archives: Pinafore Park
A change in St. Thomas Canada Day fireworks venue lights up more than just the sky
The announcement from the city seemed harmless enough.
Canda Day celebrations this year will culminate in a spectacular fireworks display.
However, the light-up-the-sky show will take place at 1Password Park and not the traditional venue in Pinafore Park.
We asked Mayor Joe Preston what prompted the change in location.
He noted 1Password Park “has three accesses, a lot more parking and it gives us the ability to put on a better fireworks show.”
A reference, no doubt, to the tighter confines at Pinafore and the proximity of neighbouring homes.
Preston continued, “In discussions with the Kinsmen, who help us with the fireworks and also help us with Canada Day, we thought IPassword would be a great thing to try.”
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Estimated meter readings are water torture for some St. Thomas customers
How’s that water bill of yours? Are you going to have to dip into your savings or line of credit to pay the latest bill?
Some city residents have received much higher bills than normal and we contacted Jim Hogan, president and CEO of Entegrus. The city of St. Thomas contracts out meter reading to the utility who, we find out, subcontracts it to a third party.
According to Hogan, the bills have been estimated readings only for several months and those estimates do not necessarily jive with actual usage.
“It’s kind of a catch-up and a balancing between some of the estimates may be a little high and some were a little low and we’re working hard to get out there to do the actual reads, to verify the actual reads.”
The money collected is then paid to the city on a contractual basis.
According to the formal agreement between the city and Ascent/St. Thomas Energy signed in April 2014, St. Thomas Energy “will pay to the municipality the water and wastewater charges billed to the customers by the end of the month following the date of invoicing.”
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Leaving ‘bookmarks as to how we can move forward’ – St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston
After a much-enjoyed two-week Christmas hiatus, City Scope returns eager to document what transpires in the new year and what got us to this point over the past 365 days.
When looking back at 2022 – the fourth and final year for the previous municipal council – St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston lists housing as the top story. And Preston is quick to add growth in the city is not going to stop any time soon.
“We’re excited with what we’ve been able to accomplish on housing and have left bookmarks as to how we can move forward.
“Yes, it’s probably the Number 1 story across Ontario and we feel very comfortable with St. Thomas at all ranges, from the homeless side to the single-family homes side, have made incredible progress.”
Preston goes on to note the work undertaken in the past four years paves the way for what needs to be accomplished on the housing front by the recently elected council.
In reflecting on other accomplishments of city council in the past year, Preston turns to the acquisition of 800 acres of farmland east of Highbury Avenue.
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For Devon Church, what St. Thomas municipal council needs is a candidate with ‘lived experience’
As he campaigns for a seat on city council, Devon Church confidently proclaims when elected, not if.
Specifically, “When elected, I will be accountable, dedicated and propel council towards innovation and positive change.”
Church is a registered nurse at Southwestern Public Health who bemoans the lack of lived experience on the present council.
Church feels members of council “were mostly folks from a higher income level trying to figure out what to do with folks from lower incomes.”
Every candidate points to the need for solutions to issues plaguing the downtown core.
Church offers alternatives.
“I believe we need a downtown drop-in space that is accessible to all, that includes food and beds.”
But it is not the existing emergency shelter known as The Inn.
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Invigorated by the accomplishments of this council, Jeff Kohler is pursuing another term at St. Thomas city hall
He’s the longest-serving mayor/alderman/councillor currently in St. Thomas and earlier this month, Jeff Kohler declared his intention to seek another four-year term on city council.
Kohler has served in that capacity since 2010, but his introduction to municipal politics is a story unto itself.
He first threw his hat into the ring in 1997 and finished as third runner-up in that year’s municipal vote.
Referencing Eric Bunnell’s People column from April of 2000, Ald. Helen Cole had announced her resignation and council met behind closed doors to unanimously agree Kohler should fill the vacant seat.
The top vote-getter in 1997, Terry Shackelton had already moved on to council and the next hopeful in line, former alderman Hugh Shields, declined the appointment to council.
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In announcing his re-election bid, Steve Peters observes, that you can ‘move an agenda along quicker at the municipal level’
Hot on the heels of Joe Preston’s announcement he is seeking a second term as St. Thomas mayor, Steve Peters has made it known he too will pursue re-election.We caught up with Peters at the end of the week and he stressed, “There is a lot of work to be done on a lot of issues and, honestly, that’s why I chose to seek re-election.”
His political career was launched at the municipal level before Peters moved on to represent Elgin-Middlesex-London at Queen’s Park.
“When I reflect on all my years in politics and my service on different fronts for me, I’ve always been a huge fan of municipal politics, where you can say it is black, I say it is white and collectively we find the gray and get on with it.
“You can make things happen and move an agenda along quicker at the municipal level.”
Sitting in the council chamber, Peters looks to provincial politicians now and is convinced there is an ongoing role shift that is leading to an imbalance for municipalities.
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There is no ‘bait and switch’ with the Alma College Square development
Evident by the questions raised by a couple of councillors at Monday’s (March 15) meeting, the Alma College Square development still generates concern even while the skeleton of Phase 1 reaches skyward.
While council did approve amendments to the plans for the three-tower residential development, unanswered questions remain.
Issues revolve around traffic flow, the final colours of the structures, why the site plans seemed to be in a constant state of flux, Community Improvement Plan funding and, most puzzling of all, why was a Wellington street access to the former Alma College property nixed?
Developer Michael Loewith of Patriot Properties, at times, added to the confusion, in particular as to what shades and hues the exterior of the buildings will wear.
Coun. Jeff Kohler perhaps put it best when he observed, “I’m certainly not going to accept buying a red car when I ordered a blue one.”
A reference initially alluded to by Coun. Steve Peters.
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A defining moment in the history of St. Thomas’ Memorial Arena to be written this spring and summer
It has a long and storied history. Of course, the St. Thomas Elgin Memorial Centre was long the home of the St. Thomas Stars and before that, the Pests and the Barons.
How many of you remember the short-lived Wildcats of the Colonial Hockey League who called Memorial Arena home for three years before morphing into the London Wildcats and then the Dayton Ice Bandits?
The old barn is seeped in hockey history but its defining moment may very well be written this spring and summer.
Over the past couple of weeks, the venerable facility built in 1953 has been transformed into an impressive vaccination hub where tens of thousands of area residents – certainly far more than the 2,600 or so hockey fanatics who could jam the stands and walking track for a game – will wend their way through the structure and emerge after a shot of insurance against the coronavirus.
Tremendous gratitude is owed Cynthia St. John, Jaime Fletcher and the rest of the hard-working staff at Southwestern Public Health and their community partners who have ironed out every last detail to open up the vaccination clinic Monday morning to get down to the business of corralling the coronavirus.
