59 Carden St.

City wants to know why voter participation dropping

2013-05-24T11:54:51-04:00

The city will get some outside help as it tries to figure out why fewer and fewer people have been participating in municipal elections.

Beginning Monday, Toronto-based Oraclepoll Research Ltd. will administer a telephone survey, asking 600 randomly-selected questions about their participation in municipal elections.

"Voter participation has more or less declined since the 2000 election," city clerk Blair Labelle said in a media release, "and there is very limited municipal data available to shed light on this trend to support our planning efforts."

The survey results and related staff recommendations will be presented in July to the city's governance committee.

Guelph Transit provides a record number of rides for passengers in 2012

2013-05-23T22:39:06-04:00

Posted by Phil Andrews

The 2012 annual report for Guelph Transit has just been released to the city's Operations, Transit & Emergency Services Committee.

Here are verbatim key findings it offers:

* Ridership on both conventional and mobility services increased in 2012. For the first time in its history, Guelph Transit had more than 7 million boardings in a year;

* Customer complaints increased drastically in 2012 due to the implementation of the Transit Growth Strategy. The magnitude of the changes to the transit system was very significant and many riders could not understand or assimilate the changes;

* Guelph Transit was approximately 6 per cent over budget which was a combination of both lower revenues and higher expenses than forecast. Financial performance is expected to improve as experience is gained with the new routes and service model;

* Schedule adherence was below expected levels. Again, as further experience is (gained) with the new system and the necessary service adjustments are put into effect, performance should improve.

GRCA to participate in Niska Road bridge study

2013-05-22T15:56:02-04:00

Posted by Phil Andrews

The Grand River Conservation Authority has advised the City of Guelph it wishes to participate in the Environmental Assessment process related to the municipality's controversial proposal to replace the Niska Road bridge with a new, two-lane structure.

According to the agenda of the next GRCA meeting, the conservation authority is interested in the proposal as the span would cross the Speed River and see development in a zone noted as a local watershed flood plain.

Here is the GRCA report: Download Agenda Package - media

Common sense around lightning

2013-05-21T22:41:04-04:00

Posted by Phil Andrews

The City of Guelph seems to have added a line to its Sportsfield Status link on its website.

The link offers input to users on whether city-controlled sports fields are immediately available for user groups.

A line about how to react in the event of lightning appears to have been added.

It must be influenced by legal advice. Perhaps asserting that people need to use common sense surrounding lightning around the fields is the most prudent position to take from a risk management point of view.

Guelph Transit hiring

2013-05-14T11:02:50-04:00

Posted by Phil Andrews

Guelph Transit is seeking to hire a manager. It's a senior job but not the top gig with the utility -- though the salary tops out in the Sunshine List range.

The successful candidate will feel some heat in the role. Guelph Transit is fairly or unfairly a huge target for criticism in this community.

Downtown parking, capital budgets on Guelph committee agenda

2013-05-13T15:53:57-04:00

Downtown parking will likely be the key topic of conversation at this evening's meeting of the city's corporate administration, finance and enterprise committee.

Committee members will hear a staff update on a downtown parking master plan currently underway.

One other agenda item which could prove interesting concerns a capital budget monitoring report. This could be interesting given a couple of councillors' very public concerns about how capital budget dollars are allocated once the overall budget is approved by council.

The meeting gets underway at 5:30 p.m. I'll post some updates via the Twitter machine @scottjtracey and @guelphmercury

Two local municipal affairs leaders mourned

2013-05-13T11:53:09-04:00

Posted by Phil Andrews

Two well-known local government figures have passed away in recent days.

On May 8, former Guelph city clerk and former local justice of the peace Gordon Hall died. He was 91. His funeral was Saturday.

On Saturday, Les Allan a member of Guelph Township Council for 13 years passed away. He was 89. His funeral is Thursday.

Striking elevator workers bring protest to Guelph

2013-05-09T10:52:02-04:00

A province-wide strike by 1,400 elevator maintenance workers reached Guelph today, with picket lines popping up at various locations including in front of City Hall.

The International Union of Elevator Constructors has been on strike since May 1, when their deal with the National Elevator and Escalator Association -- comprised of four major elevator companies -- expired.

A recent story about a similar demonstration in Thunder Bay had one union official advising "it might be the best idea to take the stairs at this point in time."

UPDATE: Mario Petricevic, who looks after corporate building maintenance, told me the operation of city hall's elevators won't be affected by the strike. Petricevic said the city had received a letter from the elevator companies indicating they will continue to provide service through the use of "non-union staff."

A sure sign summer is approaching

2013-05-08T14:57:02-04:00

It was sounding a lot more summery downtown this afternoon, as the sprinklers were turned on at the splash pad in front of City Hall.

The sprinklers were just on for testing.

The official opening of the popular splash pad is expected to take place sometime next week; likely towards the end of the week.

It runs daily 10 a.m. until 10 p.m.

No rules on Downtown fundraising solicitors

2013-05-07T16:54:12-04:00

I tweeted (@scottjtracey) this afternoon my annoyance at the persistent fundraisers who are a constant presence at St. George's Square and elsewhere downtown.

I really have just about had enough of them.

Doug Godfrey, the city's manager of bylaw compliance, told me later this afternoon there are no rules prohibiting peddlars or panhandlers, which would presumably include professional fundraisers.

Interestingly, Godfrey noted staff looked at including such activities on the No-No list when they were putting together the controversial Public Nuisance Bylaw, but it did't even get into the original draft.

I would urge staff to give it another thought. While many of the targeted activities in the various drafts of that bylaw did not meet my personal threshold for nuisance, these fundraisers certainly do.