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Mono Council candidates agree on need for citizen engagement

September 24, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Tom Claridge

About 50 of the 7,500 eligible electors in Mono who turned up last Saturday morning for the first of three planned all candidates’ meetings were greeted with near unanimity on all topics raised, including a need for more citizen engagement.

There was also agreement on a subject of interest to anyone using two of the busiest highway intersections in the town, on Highway 10 at Camilla and Airport Road at Hockley Road, where east-west and turning traffic must cope with high volumes of traffic often going at well above the posted 80 km/h speed limits.

The meeting heard that Mono Council has been trying repeatedly to convince bureaucrats at the London office of the Transportation ministry’s West Region on the need for the signals at Camilla and left turn lanes at all intersections of the highway in Mono.

In all cases, the town’s requests have been turned down, even when Mono volunteered to pay for the Camilla signals. The intersection involves three levels of government, with Dufferin Road 8 to the east and Mono responsible for 15 Sideroad to the west.

In agreeing that the need at Camilla is a serious one, candidate John Creelman said that when he was the town’s mayor, reconstruction work on the highway made the intersection even more dangerous by shortening the time when approaching traffic on the highway becomes visible. All the MTO had agreed to do was install a flashing light.

Moderated by former Orangeville public works director Jack Tupling, the two-hour meeting at the Monora Park Pavilion was spearheaded by Lewis Baker and sponsored by the Citizen. It and similar sessions planned for the Mono Community Centre on October 2 and Monora Park October 15 were aimed at improving on the low voter turnout four years ago, when only about 25 per cent of eligible voters bothered to cast ballots.

This time there will be no paper ballots, since the town has followed Mulmur Township in substituting electronic voting, with eligible voters being mailed PINs (personal identification numbers) with pamphlets explaining how to use them – either by going to the Town website or phoning a special number and responding to questions. Voting by Internet will be possible any time from Oct. 12 up to and including election day, Oct. 22. It will also be possible by using a computer at the municipal office during business hours.

The Mono election will be for mayor, deputy mayor and three council seats, with Mayor Laura Ryan facing a challenge from Stephen Unwin, Mr. Creelman and Elaine Capes seeking to be deputy mayor, and incumbent councillors Ralph Manktelow, Sharon Martin and Fred Nix facing challenges from Bob McCrea and Diane Walmsley.

In addition to the Citizen-sponsored sessions that follow a traditional format of opening speeches and questions from the floor, Dufferin Board of Trade is sponsoring a “Meet the Candidates” evening at Monora Park on Sept. 25.


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