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Mono re-opens Purple Hill Park, moves toward e-voting

September 14, 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Jasen Obermeyer

With summer coming to an end, and vacation over for most, Mono Council was busy at their first September Council meeting, agreeing to reopen Purple Hill Park, where glass was found in the sand, and approving a bylaw to enter an agreement to allow electronic voting at the 2018 municipal election.

Purple Hill Park, located at 15 Ashwood Drive near Hurontario Street and Buena Vista Drive, was immediately closed at the end of July due to vandalism involving shards of broken glass being left in the sand throughout the play structure.

Throughout August, a local contractor was hired to remove the glass with an industrial grade sifter. After over 50 man-hours and $2,000 were spent sifting through the sand, three 20-litre pails of broken glass were removed.

“It was a very vindictive or very malicious act of violence – that’s a lot of glass to be removed,” said Kim Perryman, Mono’s director of parks and recreation, when giving her report to Council.

An independent consulting company performed an inspection of the playground, and recommended the park be re-opened. However, the town is advising residents using the park to wear closed-toe footwear, the report by the inspector stating “it is very difficult to guarantee that all glass fragments have been collected” and recommending that “additional monitoring be performed.”

Dufferin OPP has been notified and will be keeping a close eye on the playground. If anyone finds left-over pieces of glass, they must put it in the nearby garbage container, and if one notices suspicious acts of vandalism, they should call the OPP 24/7 central communications line at 1-888-310-1122.

Also discussed was Council moving ahead with approving electronic voting for next year’s election.

With today’s technology affecting nearly all aspects of society, it to has changed the way we vote. With many municipalities leaving behind the old-fashioned paper ballot voting system in favour of electronic voting, Council approved a bylaw to authorize CAO Mark Early to “enter into an agreement with Intelivote Systems Inc. for the provision of internet and telephone voting services for the 2018 school board and municipal election.”   

Each registered voter will be sent in the mail a single-use personal identification number (PIN), which the voter can use to cast the ballot online from anywhere and at any time during the given voting period.   

The Town’s decision to use electronic voting is mainly due to low voter turnout at the polling stations at the last election, and will benefit the town financially, as electronic voting is cheaper and requires less administration and staffing costs. However, there will also be designated polling stations for those who need assistance in using the new voting method.

In a phone call with the Citizen, Mr. Early said they’re looking to reach an agreement with Intelivote Systems Inc. by mid-October.

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