59 Carden St.

Chubby felines

Today's the day when public sector employers have to reveal the names and salaries of their employees who made more than $100,000 in the previous year.

There are 64 names listed next to City of Guelph, with CAO Hans Loewig leading the way with a salary of $198,272.

The Guelph Police Service listed 28 employees on the big earners list, led by Police Chief Rob Davis at $182,038, down about $12,000 from last year's total.

We'll have more in the paper tomorrow. In the meantime, here's the link to the Salary Disclosure page of the Ministry of Finance website.

Let the comments begin.

I'd show you, but ...

That image to the right was going to be a photo of a cute little goodbye message staff at the clerk's office scribbled on the wall before moving their stuff next door last week.

I noticed the message -- in black marker on the pink wall -- while attending a committee meeting on Monday, and went back today with my camera to get a shot of it. I made the mistake of mentioning to someone at Service Guelph what I was up to, prompting a telephone call to one of the communications staffers, which soon prompted a visit from said staffer inviting me not to take the photo now, but rather in 7 to 10 days.

The office is a mess, he said. It's a public safety issue, he said.

Whatever.

The move appears to be going well, and I am scheduled for a media tour of the new facility tomorrow morning, so I'll share some thoughts here and in the paper.

Hanlon plan gets a yellow light

Members of the community development and environmental services committee exercised caution this afternoon, voting to send the province's final design for the Hanlon Expressway back to city staff to address some specific issues raised by residents during a lengthy committee meeting.

Most of the 16 delegations were residents of Old Colony Trail, who understandably are upset they have been almost entirely left out of the design process, despite a proposal for a service road which will funnel 5,000 cars a day, or more, within metres of the back of their homes.

The committee's decision to send the issue back to staff means the Hanlon plan has one fewer hurdle to clear, as in the normal course a recommendation from the committee would be required before it would go before council proper.

Of course, while there are only four councillors and the mayor on the committee, Coun. Gloria Kovach was the only elected rep not at the committee meeting today. Hopefully this will considerably reduce debate when the issue comes to council April 27.

Read more in the paper tomorrow.

New City Hall to shine during Earth Hour

The city has announced the lights will not be out at the new City Hall during Earth Hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. tomorrow, because workers may still be present in the building.

A communications assistant from the mayor's office sent an email today letting us know; a proactive measure presumably designed to fend off some of the upset calls bound to flow from the illumination.

Check out this press release from the city's website.

Asking in a roundabout way

We had a story in the paper earlier this week about a proposal by the city to turn the five points intersection at Norfolk/Norwich/Woolwich into a roundabout.

The city will be rolling the idea out to residents later this year to collect feedback, but we thought we'd get a bit of a head start.

Beginning tomorrow, head over to the main page of our website and answer our online poll question, which I'm told will be: Are you opposed to the city even considering a roundabout-style fix to replace the five points intersection on Norfolk Street?

Mission Not Accomplished

Proponents and opponents of the Hanlon Creek Business Park development got little accomplished Thursday night during a public forum at the Norfolk United Church.

A six-member panel debated the issues, most of them — okay all of them — environmental for two hours. But, the project is no closer to being started now than it was at the beginning of the forum.

We'll have more in the Mercury on Friday.

In the meantime, here's a list of the major players from Thursday night:

In the green corner (get it? no? you will):
Matt Soltys of the environmental activist group Land Is More Important Than Sprawl
Judy Martin of Guelph Urban Forest Friends
James Gordon of the Wellington Water Watchers

In the other corner (sorry, no pun):
Peter Cartwright, City of Guelph general manager of economic development and tourism
Lise Burcher, city councillor
Lloyd Longfield of the Guelph Chamber of Commerce

Here are those relegated to non-speaking bit parts:
Some 1,700 mature, heritage trees and 33 acres of tree canopy
The Western Chorus Frog
The Jefferson Salamander

Because I have time, here are some quotes you won't see in the paper Friday:

"There are too many irreplaceable resources at risk. The city is trying to put a square peg in a round hole." — Judy Martin

"We've already passed the tipping point. We've already passed the point of no return. Life is going to be uninhabitable." — Matt Soltys

"This is a very complex project and it will require a lot of public input." — Peter Cartwright

- posted by Greg Layson

Into the lion's den?

I see on the agenda for today's Wellington County council meeting that Ian Panabaker, the city's urban design program manager, is slated to address council on the Baker Street project.

The last time this issue was before county councillors, they were flinging around a lot of protectionist terms, including talking about not giving the city access to some county-owned parking spaces behind the old post office on Wyndham Street.

I don't know if that has spurred Panabaker's appearance, but things could get interesting. Stay tuned.

MTO weighs in on Hanlon

We have a story in the paper today about residents of Hanlon Road concerned about the upgrades to take place along the Hanlon Expressway.

The residents are justifiably miffed, as their homes have been identified by the Ministry of Transportation as among those which will have the be torn down and they have no idea how long they have until the moving boxes should be packed.

I sought comment from the ministry while putting the story together yesterday morning, but the response did not come until this morning when it was too late to get it in the paper. So in the interest of completeness, here is the emailed response from the MTO's Monica Fleck:

"We are currently drafting the Transportation Environmental Study Report for the project and are planning to publish the report this spring for a 30-day public review period. A presentation on the project will be made to the City of Guelph Community Development and Environmental Services Committee on March 30. Following this presentation, MTO will be seeking a City of  Guelph Council Resolution in support of the preferred plan. Once the project has received approval, the work can be considered as part of the future Southern Highways Program. It is expected that work will begin at Laird Road as the ministry and Guelph have entered into a partnership agreement to construct an interchange at this location. The ministry is acquiring property when approached by affected owners on a willing seller-willing buyer basis. Those property owners who have concerns regarding specific aspects of the project should contact the Ministry to discuss these concerns. Again, the Ministry is willing to discuss acquiring property when approached on a willing seller-willing buyer basis."

Read today's story here.

"We are currently drafting the Transportation Environmental Study Report for the project and are planning to publish the report this spring for a 30-day public review period. A presentation on the project will be made to the City of Guelph Community Development and Environmental Services Committee on March 30. Following this presentation, MTO will be seeking a City of  Guelph Council Resolution in support of the preferred plan. Once the project has received approval, the work can be considered as part of the future Southern Highways Program. It is expected that work will begin at Laird Road as the ministry and Guelph have entered into a partnership agreement to construct an interchange at this location. The ministry is acquiring property when approached by affected owners on a willing seller-willing buyer basis. Those property owners who have concerns regarding specific aspects of the project should contact the Ministry to discuss these concerns. Again, the Ministry is willing to discuss acquiring property when approached on a willing seller-willing buyer basis."

Read today's story here.

Our hometown Olympians

Congratulations to the Guelph-based Canada Floor Hockey Special Olympics Team, which recently won the silver medal at the 2009 Winter Games in Boise, Idaho.

Team members and their coaches were at the city council meeting tonight, where Mayor Karen Farbridge presented each with City of Guelph medals to wear along with the silver medallions each wore around his neck.

The team members are Doug Dunk, Michael Farley, Jim Hamill, Dan Jamieson, Mark Jamieson, Andrew McTaggart, Paul McTaggart, Edgar Riel, Patric Seeds, Stephen Slezsak, Scott Tennant, Ben Tinholt, Graham Tosh, Jeff Tromp and Jamie Walker. Their head coach is Paul Turner and the assistant coaches are Mark Cullen and Shawn Turner.

Brought to you by?

Sharp-eyed readers might have noticed a lack of staff names in the paper this week.

Our reporters and photographers have been staging a byline strike, leaving their names off stories and photos to protest the recent laying off of 11 newsroom employees. The last of these takes effect this weekend.

Staff names, albeit fewer of them, will return to the Mercury's pages on Monday.