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02 | 14 | 2015 VOLUME 20 | ISSUE 07
Preserving Wellesley’s yesteryears LIVING HERE PAGE 24
COMMENT PAGE 8
Woolwich council needs to press for real cuts
Tweaks made, Woolwich approves 2015 budget steve kannon At times visibly frustrated by the process, council this week approved Woolwich’s 2015 budget, which maintains an operating budget tax increase of zero and a 1.6 per cent levy for infrastructure projects. Overall, spending for the township’s operations rises to $14.7 million, up 6.3 per cent over the $13.8 million budgeted in 2014, well beyond the inflationary two per cent tax hike originally sought in staff’s first draft of the budget. Having opted for a target of zero, councillors expecting a two per cent cut in spending found instead staff offering up a combination of minor cuts, spending deferrals, and optimism that some revenues would be higher than originally forecasted. Taken together with the poaching of assessment growth money, the measures provide room for the freeze on tax hikes council demanded. The convoluted shuffling wasn’t lost on some councillors, who expressed frustration that the budget process fails to properly service the public. Budget | 6
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Neighbours unhappy with school planned for Breslau parkland Woolwich sees chance to upgrade the park with money from school board deal, but not everyone is onboard Scott Barber With 182 signatures and counting, a petition condemning plans by the Township of Woolwich and the Waterloo Catholic District School Board to build an elementary school in Breslau Memorial Park is gaining steam. The petition was launched online by Matthew VanderMeer, a Norwich Road resident with property backing onto the parkland. “For the homeowners that back onto the space, we were under the impression that this was finished, that this green space was here to stay,” VanderMeer said, noting the $5,000 premium he paid the developer for his home’s location. “We have the community gym and the community centre there and we thought over time they might add tennis courts and a splash pad. And so we were really taken by surprise when we saw these plans to put a building there.”
Along with a JK-to-Grade 8 school that will replace St. Boniface Catholic Elementary School in Maryhill, the plans call for improvements to existing township facilities, which will be shared with their new neighbour. The Region of Waterloo Library is also involved, as plans call for a 5,000-square-foot shared-use library. Plans, including preliminary designs, will be unveiled to the public at a meeting February 26. Woolwich Mayor Sandy Shantz called the proposal “an excellent opportunity to upgrade the park and to bring a good, decent-sized library to Breslau.” She added, “We don’t have the funds to do the upgrades that we would see as a result of this partnership. The school board will pay us for the land and then School | 4
Matthew VanderMeer launched an online petition opposing a plan hatched by the township and WCDSB to build a school in Breslau Memorial Park. [scott barber / the observer]