Tag Archives: residents of Westport

Uncategorized

Grant Application to Ontario government for waste water treatment plant due Oct 21

The Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF3) grants are due Friday, October 21.  The Village is requesting the maximum amount of $2 million – of which 90% will be grant.  I believe that our application is very strong.  We are adding an updated Asset Management Plan, which has become a significant component to these applications over the past 12 months.

I have been asked several times over the past few months what you, the residents and business owners, can do to help support our application.  At a recent Committee of the Whole meeting, I agreed with the request to provide a sample outline of a letter to the Minister of Infrastructure that could be included in our submission.

If you wish to send correspondence or speak directly to Minister Chiarelli, here is his email and toll free telephone number.

bob.chiarelli@ontario.ca                 Toll-free: 1-800-268-7095

For anyone who wants to have a letter included in our submission, you can drop it off at Town Hall or send directly to nbressee@villageofwestport.ca.  Below is a suggestion only.

The Honourable Bob Chiarelli, Minister of Infrastructure

900 Bay Street, 5th Floor, Mowat Block

Toronto, Ontario, M7A 2E1

Dear Minister Chiarelli

I am a resident or business owner  (check one) in the Village of Westport.  Our municipal waste water treatment plant has been the subject of a Class C – Municipal Environmental Assessment, received support from the MOECC to proceed with the approved alternate solution and recently was given approval by Municipal Council after reaching the 70% completion stage of the detailed design.

The existing system is called Snowfluent, which treats effluent by turning it into snow.  Well, that is how it is supposed to work.  For a variety of reasons, it has not worked very well for the past several years.  Since 2014, the village has found it necessary to haul effluent to another treatment facility – approximately $800,000 worth of haulage – instead of dumping the waste into Upper Rideau Lake.

We are a small community of under 700 full time residents and need your help for the proposed rehabilitation of the waste water treatment plant, which will remove the public safety concerns and the moratorium on new builds and allow my village to grow.

Please support our OCIF3 application.  Our community is depending on you.

Yours truly,

 

Uncategorized

Special Thanks from Ottawa Bicycle Club

I received this email last week and checked that I could post it.  Thank you to everyone who works so hard and makes our village the friendliest place to visit (and live!).  Job well done!!

p.s. The bike repair kit Ruth mentions was donated by Rick Bonner and is on the Information Centre.

On Sep 6, 2016, at 1:40 PM, Ruth Bonk <rbonk@hotmail.ca> wrote:

Hello Robin;
 
My name is Ruth Bonk and I am the touring events director for the Ottawa Bicycle Club.
 
We held our very first club touring event in Westport in May this year.  We stayed at the Cove Inn. The feedback we have received from that event has been very positive and I want to share it with you.  
 
Our riders found the area roads and drivers lovely and bicycle friendly.  We have received comments on how nice it was that you visited and welcomed the group in person. There were remarks about how clean the tourist office and public washrooms are.   We have even received a picture of the bicycle maintenance tool kit at your municipal office.
 
Thank you for your welcome and bicycle friendly environment.  
We hope to add the Westport tour to our roster of annual touring events. 
 
Regards, 

Ruth Bonk
OBC Touring Events Director
Uncategorized

Happy Labour Day!

September – a month full of new activity.  Students are getting ready to begin a new year, a new class and are excited about returning to school and catching up with friends they haven’t seen since June.  For parents, it is arranging schedules to get their children to sports and other organized activities as well as driving older children to colleges and universities.  And for businesses in Westport, it is time to catch their breath!

I hope that everyone enjoyed a hot and sunny summer and are looking as forward to the cool, crisp days of autumn colour as I am.

A couple of things to share with you.  You may have seen lots of activity at the arena last week including yesterday.  I learned this morning that all of the new ice making equipment is now installed and running very well.  Looks positive for the first Rideaus game on Friday night @ 8:00 pm.

You may also have noticed some water on the road in the area of 26 Bedford St.  This situation is being closely monitored.  At this point in time,  the repair is planned to begin on Tuesday morning.

Council meeting this week is Wednesday night @ 7:00 p.m.  Please join us if you can.

Uncategorized

Heritage Days – congratulations on a successful event.

Thank you to the volunteers from North Crosby, Newboro and Westport who organized and participated in a fabulous day, reminding us of our roots.  There were many  informative displays – some were interactive, great food, wonderful music and rich story telling.  Miss Fanny Murphy kept us in stitches as she talked about growing up in North Crosby.   Special thanks to Westport Councillor Jacky Brady, who in addition to many other festival committee duties, kept the event alive on social media.

Miss F Murphy
Miss Franny Murphy talking about growing up in North Crosby. What a sense of humour!
Uncategorized

Volunteers – we have the best!

This week, I was at an event with other politicians from Eastern Ontario municipalities and one of them said “You have the best volunteers in Westport”.  You know it,  I know it and it seems that people for hundreds of km around know it.

Our Village’s bench strength comes from those individuals who give freely of their time for the good of the community. We have flowers and banners beautifying our streets, we are raising  much needed funds for the arena, our arts council is bringing more than 20 events to the ‘port each year, minor sports coaches providing strong role models for our youth and children, a service club who knows the meaning of “service”and a Royal Canadian Legion who places the Vets and serving members of the Armed Forces first.  There are many others who do important work – each and every day.bike repair kit at Info Centre

What about the community member who wanted to support the many cyclists who travel through the Village and donated a professional bike repair kit, which is now mounted on the outside wall of the Information Centre?

What about the many volunteers who came together to help the village host Rideau Thunder this week-end?  A wonderful event, despite the weather, that brought people with different interests to town. This group of volunteers were helping get the registration packages and voting ballots for the Show’n’Shine ready on Thursday night.

The criteria used by researchers to determine what makes a municipality a “best place to live” yields consistent results study after study.  Community.  In a great community, people engage with that community.  They get out and LIVE with their neighbours, business owners and visitors to build a strong sense of community for the greater good.  Well – Welcome to Westport – a great community!