PICKERING -- A Pickering councillor got an eye-opener when he spent an
afternoon off his feet recently.

“The ability to move around in a wheelchair or scooter is something you
can’t talk about until you try it,” said Ward 3 Regional Councillor Rick
Johnson.

He travelled through the Pickering Town Centre on a scooter Monday
afternoon to raise money for the March of Dimes (MOD), a non-profit
organization that offers programs and services for people with physical
disabilities. He raised $60 through donations he collected in a pail on
his scooter at the mall, and donated an extra $500 himself. Shoppers Home
Health Care, where the presentation took place, rounded it up to $600.

“It was very generous of him to donate so much of his time to go to
Pickering Town Centre to do that,” said Sheila Casemore, MOD manager of
group development and support.

Joe Millage, director of government relations and business development for
Shoppers Home Health Care (which works in conjunction with the MOD), said
he chose Coun. Johnson for the event because he cares about the community
and communicates well with others.

“We felt he’d embrace the opportunity to spend a couple of hours on a
scooter and seeing things from a different perspective,” he said.

Coun. Johnson said he was very impressed with the PTC’s accessibility and
noted some of the people he met at the mall using similar mobility devices
go there specifically for its easy access.

“A lot live in Scarborough and come to Pickering Town Centre because of
its accessibility,” he said.

One obstacle he faced was not in the mall, but in the stores themselves.

“When I went into some of the stores, the shelving and the way the clothes
racks are, they don’t leave enough space in a lot of situations for people
to get through in the actual internal store,” he said.

But, he said staff were overall “very accommodating. That part I was very
impressed with.”

PICKERING -- Drivers speeding through two dangerous curves on Valley Farm
Road will be warned to slow down by two new radar-activated sign boards.

If a vehicle exceeds the 50-km/h speed limit, the boards will light up,
warning drivers to slow down and reminding them of the limit.

“This is an area known for speed and, unfortunately, we’ve had a number of
accidents,” said Mayor Dave Ryan.

The guard rails along the southbound lane on the stretch of road north of
Finch are dented and bent from collisions over the years.

The LED radar boards are part of the City’s speed reduction pilot project
in the area.

Mayor Ryan said there are two aspects to reducing speeds: enforcement and
education. The boards provide the latter.

“What this board does is it doesn’t tell you how fast you’re going, it
tells you you’re going too fast and that the speed limit is 50 kilometers
per hour,” said Mayor Ryan.

It doesn’t show the actual speed of the vehicle because the City doesn’t
want drivers zipping past trying to clock themselves.

Rick Johnson, Ward 3 regional councillor, said there’s been traffic
calming in Pickering for about 10 years in places like Whitevale.

“Now we’re seeing more of it in an urban area and on this stretch of road
there’s a dangerous corner,” he said.

At $15,000 for the two signs, Coun. Johnson said the City scored a deal
since they each cost $9,000.

“It was a good buy for the City,” he said.

They also run on solar-charged batteries and do not require electricity.
Coun. Johnson points out the streetlights along the road cost more to
operate than the signs.

The City is hoping to see a decrease in the accident rate along the
stretch of road, said the mayor. If it does, council will consider
purchasing radar boards for other areas.

And police will continue to keep an eye out for speeders.

DURHAM -- It's the "Cadillac" of recycling plants. While some officials say the Region of Durham's Material Recovery Facility (MRF) sets a standard in blue box recycling some are still questioning its cost.

The 68,600-square-foot facility is the fifth largest of its sort in Ontario. It's expected to process 50,000 tonnes of blue box material in 2007 and has the capacity to process 115,000 tonnes a year.

Located on Garrard Road in Whitby, the MRF's grand opening on Dec. 13 was attended by some Regional councillors and staff, representatives from Metro Municipal Recycling Services, who will operate the MRF, Gottardo Construction Ltd, involved in its construction, and waste directors from around the Greater Toronto Area.

The MRF is operational, but commissioner of works, Cliff Curtis, said early in the New Year trucks will begin to be diverted from the old recycling plant next door to the new MRF.

"We are very pleased with the product," Mr. Curtis said. "We got a good value for our money."

The facility cost just less than $17 million to build, but was almost $900,000 over budget and its construction was plagued with a high water table and inadequate soil conditions.

"After months of additional work we built a recycling facility on recycled land," said Al Metauro, the chief executive officer of Metro Municipal Recycling Services Inc. "The Region made use of what would have been a useless piece of property in lieu of valuable farmland."

However proud they are of this new facility, council has yet to approve the additional costs for its construction.

"The bottom line is the taxpayer," Pickering Councillor Rick Johnson said. "I wonder if in trying to build this Cadillac of a facility we went above and beyond what was required."

Even with its higher-than-expected price tag, Steve Whitter, a director with Toronto's solid waste management department, said it is an incredibly impressive facility.

"When you drive through the gate and look at the building it's awesome," Mr. Whitter said. "It is so big and state-of-the-art."

Toronto has space issues, so they don't have the option to build such a massive facility, but Durham's MRF will serve as an example for future projects, Mr. Whitter said.

"We have a need for two in the city of Toronto and will definitely be looking to this as a model," he said.

Peter Watson, Durham's manager of waste management, said the facility can handle all of the Region's blue box materials and will maximize revenue with dual-functioning optical sorters.

"Each of the machines has the ability to separate two types of materials," Mr. Watson said.

He explained each different type of material, from plastics to aluminum, will be sorted out, bailed and sold.

"It gives us high quality material," he said. "From the resident's point of view, they can continue to put out blue box material in exactly the same way, but when it comes here it is sorted in a highly efficient manner."

To the editor:
Re: 'Whitevale resident wants to stay in her home', Nov. 23 News Advertiser.

No one understands 'government as landlord' better than those of us, like Councillor Rick Johnson, who are long-term tenants or original owners on the federal airport lands.

We sympathize as Ms. McNaughton battles for improvements to her home, a significant heritage property, improvements that would better her life and protect the house for future generations. All levels of government have a responsibility to not only meet but also exceed the standards required by private landlords - as Transport Canada discovered when it lost court cases challenging its treatment of tenants on the federal lands.

This neglect reflects a long-term plot to allow the houses to decay to the
point where they become untenable. For decades the property managers had
been operating under the radar. Political parties come and go, but you
can't vote out bureaucrats.

We have seen buildings neglected and bulldozed, homes that should have been maintained and rented, providing income and security on what has become the largest vacant lot in the country and continued community life in villages that were thriving at the time of expropriation. Whitevale was saved when much was sold back and the provincial government got out of the landlord business. But Transport Canada doesn't want thriving communities on airport land: people get in the way of airports. They have for 35 years - and counting.

Mary Delaney

PICKERING -- It doesn't bother Valerie McNaughton that her floors are slanted or that her doors are crooked. In fact, she thinks it adds character to her home. What bothers her is the fact that she can't open her windows and that her furnace doesn't work properly. "The floors are wonky, but I love my house," she said. "I just want them to fix it."

And she definitely doesn't want to move. Ms. McNaughton moved into the Henry Major House in Whitevale, which was built in 1820, in 2000. The property was expropriated by the provincial government in the early 1970s and tenants have rented the home ever since.

But, from the moment Ms. McNaughton moved in, she's experienced continuous problems, ones she thinks aren't too difficult to fix. In fact, she's even offered to do some of the repairs herself, as long as the property manager provides her with the materials. But she said her offers have been brushed aside each time.

"It's always 'tomorrow, tomorrow, or next month, next month'," she said.

Although she hasn't been served with an eviction notice, she said the landlord, the Ontario Realty Corporation (ORC), has deemed it too expensive to fix, and has begun offering Ms. McNaughton alternatives.

She explained the alternatives include: moving to a house on Altona Road (which she says is tiny, and has no basement), another on Whitevale Road (which her kids have renamed "The Amityville House"), or compensating her with $10,000.

ORC spokesman Bill Moore said initial offers for Ms. McNaughton to move were due to "her discomfort in the house." The home has been deemed habitable and he said there is no intention to evict her at this time. As for repairs, he said there is still some work to be done, but each repair is significant.

"As for the property itself, long-term plans for the property are being reviewed," he said.

Ward 3 Regional Councillor Rick Johnson said moving the McNaughton family somewhere else will only intensify the home's deterioration.

"If you leave it empty for the winter all the pipes are going to freeze up and it'll be worse every year you leave it for winter without heat in the house," he said. "It will be a situation of having to tear it down and demolish it because it won't be good for anything after that."

He added the Henry Major House is one of the oldest homes in Pickering, and he would like it to be there for Pickering's 200th anniversary in 2011.

At a recent Council meeting, he put forward a motion requesting the ORC to immediately commit to repair and maintain occupancy of the home, with hopes to protect and preserve it "as one of the most important heritage sites in the Whitevale Heritage Conservation District."

Coun. Johnson believes the biggest problem in the situation is neglect. He said the expropriation by the federal and provincial governments has "torn the heart out of central Pickering and north Pickering."

Although there is a list of at least 20 things that need to be fixed, there is only a handful of items Ms. McNaughton feels must be done. First, she would like her furnace fixed.

"I can put a Kleenex on the vent and it won't blow off," she said. She added her hydro bill has been roughly $1,500 for three months, and she thinks this is due to the furnace's inefficiency.

"Financially, I'm not going to be able to afford it," she said.

When she moved in, the roof was new, but the ceiling was leaking and it hasn't stopped, so she'd like that repaired. She'd also like to be able to open her windows, which have been bolted shut since she moved in.

She said she's willing to compromise, and won't mind if the repairs are
done every couple of months.

Coun. Johnson believes a reason the repairs are not being done is to save costs. He said bureaucrats are given a certain budget to work with each year and if some of the buildings are torn down, they'll have the same budget to look after fewer homes the next. But, he added the problems don't all rest with Del; it started with the government 35 years ago.

"It's sad, you know, when you've got a tenant that wants to stay there and doesn't want to leave and you've got a landlord who really doesn't care," he said. "That makes it sad."

Rick Johnson
Regional Councillor
Ward 3
This year: B
Last year: B-