Planting a parkette

Just about everyone travelling through downtown Courtice has seen the new parkette under construction at the northwest corner of Highway 2 and Trulls Road.

This is really a victory for those of us who conceived and maintained a planting at the southeast corner of the property for about eight years. Personally, I'm overjoyed that this parkette, owned by the muncipality, has been enhanced through the long-term efforts of local residents.

The seeds for a downtown park at Trulls Road/Hwy. 2 were planted in 2004 by members of the Courtice Horticultural Club - and as president I'm glad to have helped.

As the club embarks towards the end of the 2012 season, the revitalization of one of the most important corners of Courtice's downtown has taken shape and we look forward to preparations for 2013.

There will be many opportunities for local service clubs to help out including various upgrades and a permanent water supply.

To be sure, in the middle of very hard economic times in Clarington it's remarkable that the town found approximately $100,000 to spend on the creation of a parkette.

But ultimately this is about the town giving back to Courtice. For as long as I've lived in Courtice - over a dozen years now - our tax dollars have been flowing eastward in the form of community grants that precious few Courtice-based organizations availed themselves of. Simply put Courtisans were supposed to be granted $1 per resident -  about $20,000 a year in grants - and to say we received a third of this would be generous.

With this parkette I personally feel Courtice has something to show for what it put into Clarington in the form of unused community grants. But make no mistake. This parkette was bought and paid for by the taxes local residents paid and not some great gift from the municipality. 
Going forward this parkette and other downtown improvement projects should be done by local businesses in partnership with service clubs and interested citizens - not the town.

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In an interesting development Covanta Energy, who will operate an incinerator in south-west Clarington, co-sponsored a family movie night. This is a sign one of Courtice's newest businesses wants to reach out to the community in a gesture of involvement with residents. I'm sure we will increasingly see the Covanta logo around town as they follow in OPG's footsteps.

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Please also note that I'm also posting this blog post on my Tumblr account - and henceforth new Protons & Electrons posts will appear there. So please update your links and visit http://markstanisz.tumblr.com and check it out if you are reading this on Blogger. The Blogger account will remain as an archive of my earlier material.

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Next blog I'll take a look at recent local development properties and issues in and around Courtice.

The Mayor of Durham



2012 June - Trulls Road/Highway 2 - former location of

Courtice Horticultural Club planting.

   Political watchers in Durham Region are well aware that residents will directly elect their regional chair in the 2014 election.
  This means Durhamites will be led by what will be considered the de facto Mayor of Durham.
  Of course this should surprise nobody because the overwhelming majority of the electorate supported the move and the vast majority of politicians did as well - there are opponents but they are clearly in the small minority.
  The actual event was something of a yawn-fest because it was clearly expected.
  But here is where it gets interesting.
  Following the last election the Regional Councillors - by a wide margin - selected Roger Anderson to be their spokesperson and he proved to be excellent in that role.
  Roger Anderson is an incredibly effective politician and has wide support among several groups whose support would be helpful - if not necessary - to win the chair next election. You don't have to be a supporter of his to see how his knowledge of the arcane details of how Durham works is deftly wielded to great effect.
  Nobody gets the better of him even if they think they did and that would make him an effective voice beyond Durham's borders where we are sorely needing that strong voice.
  Of course there will likely be others to challenge for the position. Most notibly so far is Steve Parish, who some expect will enter the race - whether Anderson decides to run or not.
  However, it's clear Anderson's grasp of the issues and his personal persuasiveness should put him in the driver's seat with just over two years to go before election season kicks off.
  Anderson has baggage (can we say "incineratorgate party") but he will likely argue he was carrying out the wishes of Regional Council and few would argue that he didn't get the job done.
  But from this time forward every comment either Anderson or Parish makes will be scrutinized for hints about their political allegiances.
  In the end the real victory is for the people - in this at least we got what we wanted.
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  I have a Twitter account which I mostly use for small business tweets but if you are not already following me on Twitter I can be found @markstanisz and also under Mark Stanisz on Facebook.
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  Next blog I'll take a look at the new parkette under construction in downtown Courtice. The photo you see above is the construction site.

New Year's resolutions

We're only a few months into 2012 and the majority of New Year's resolutions that might have been made by our town council - and many residents - are likely a fleeting distant memory.

We can guess on resolutions that were made but not kept or maybe even never made.

Zero tax increase - obviously with a 3.75 per cent tax increase for 2012 nobody will say this resolution was made or kept. It's pretty typical. There seems to be no vision here by council to come up with something really groundbreaking - mostly just more of the same. In this term of council we've already seen taxes go up by over six per cent - in two quick years.

Infrastructure - we have no new information or updates on GO expansion to Clarington, not enough progress getting the 407 built in one swoop to the 35/115 nor any excitement generated by council on Darlington new build - albeit we have some good news on refurbishment. Fighting the incinerator has been left to a local environmental group.

Council cooperation - far too many contentious votes are still split 5-2 down partisan lines with no sign of any change soon. Public bickering does not serve the public nor council. Councillors need to remember little is served by senseless opposition and steamrolling every vote doesn't make for an inclusive council.

Note: the photo you see above is of the new Shoppers Drug Mart that opened up last weekend in Courtice - the sides have been adorned with remarkable pictures depicting early settlers to the area. If you haven't seen them yet it's worth walking up there and taking a look.

Next blog I'll take a look at the direct election of our regional chair. There is an upcoming public meeting April 4 at 10am about electing our regional chair.