OUR VERY BEST WISHES FOR A HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND A SAFE AND ENJOYABLE LONG WEEKEND!

          ALAN SHEFMAN & DEBI TRAUB             

 Signs, signs - illegal signs everywhere!

If you can see the steam coming out of your computer as you read this it isn't a malfunction, it's my disgust (and frustration) over the mess on our streets resulting from virtually every corner being covered with ugly, illegal signs. These signs are a blight on our neighbourhoods. The people who place these signs are littering our streets.

The rules are very simple - no signs are allowed in residential areas of the city. If you see a sign staked into the ground, on a lamp post or stuck to the back of a stop sign, it is illegal. (Special rules apply for election signs). While the City does allow for some limited mobile signs for community based non-profit organizations - these rules are to be reviewed later this fall - all other signs are just not allowed. Even our rules for commercial signs on stores are very specific - just take a look next time you travel into Toronto and you will see the mess of commercial signage compared to Vaughan.

Thinking about putting signs around the neighbourhood for your garage sale? You probably won't be charged for putting them up a day or so before your sale, but PLEASE take them down when the sale is over!!

A couple of years ago we thought we had found at least a partial solution to the "sticky sign" problem when we found a spray material that we were told when sprayed onto our metal street signs would prevent the decal type signs from adhering to them. Regrettably it didn't work and we went back to scraping them off. I also brought a recommendation to Council to allow for increased fines and more active prosecution, but even that has not been very successful.

From time to time the staff of our Bylaw Enforcement Department, the people at the City responsible for signs, will do a blitz and remove hundreds of signs in just a few days, but just as fast they reappear.
So what is the solution?

So what can we do? I will be advocating in the upcoming budget discussions that the City hire a "sign officer." This person would be given the responsibility to manage all of our bylaws relating to signs, but with special authority to investigate and initiate charges against the most serious offenders. This person would also help coordinate the removal of illegal signs from our streets.

I also support citizen action in this area. One of the ways I amuse myself when walking in the neighbourhood, is to take a long handled scraper and a large bag with me so that I can remove any illegal signs that I see. There are days when I will walk for an hour and collect dozens and dozens of signs. If everyone going for a walk removed one illegal sign . . .

So what do you think about illegal signs on our streets? Please write and let me know your thoughts and ideas.
 

The 32nd Annual Thornhill Village Festival

Saturday, September 20 couldn't have been more beautiful for the thousands of Thornhill and surrounding area residents who took advantage of the great weather to drop in on our very own Fall festival.
For the third year the Ward 5 booth was set up near the corner of Centre and Yonge. As we enjoyed the day, we gave out candy to the kids, pens, pencils, brochures and reusable shopping bags to the adults and talked about current issues in our part of Thornhill and the City of Vaughan. We also signed up over 60 more subscribers to W5 Update, bringing our emailing list to 900!

This year's Festival saw an expanded entertainment program with a stage and Lick's hamburgers taking place in Thornhill Park.

Congratulations to Festival Chair Robb Stitt and his team of volunteers for organizing a wonderful program for 2008. If you would like to get involved in helping to organize the 2009 Festival, please let my office know and I will pass on your name to Robb.

I love puns, so since our readers may need a break from current events in Ward 5, hear are a couple that (hopefully) will give you a chuckle. Coming in the next edition is my total most favourite pun!!

A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."

Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says "I've lost my electron." The other says "Are you sure?" The first replies "Yes, I'm positive."

Is that groaning I hear?

 No Need to go to Toronto to find a Don River Trail

We have Two in Thornhill - A Guided Tour of Two Vaughan Pathways

While not as long and surely not as well known, Vaughan has two trails that follow tributaries of the Don River.
The first one, a short trail, begins near the entrance of the Uplands Golf Course. Uplands is owned by the City and is a popular local course in the summer and a favourite ski and snowboard location in the winter. This pathway curves around the north end of the property and is only suitable for walking and is not very developed.

Park your car in the lot to the right of the club house and then take the path leading into the golf course. Turn right (north) at the first roadway/path and you will pick up the pathway after you go past a storage building. The pathway goes toward the hydro corridor to the north winding its way around the outside edge of the northern tip of the golf course. Finally, the path ends at the cul-de-sac on Callaway Court.

A second, much more extensive and better maintained pathway in our area begins just east of Dufferin at Steeles. If you go south from that point you can enter an extensive trail system in the G. Ross Lord Park in Toronto. If you go north in Vaughan you enter the Bartley Smith Greenway through a short path to a point just north of Steeles and Dufferin south of the railway bridge. At that point you need to cross to the west side of Dufferin where you can pick up the pathway on either side of Glen Shields. Continuing north on the pathway you will travel through Marita Payne Park as it parallels Dufferin Street, eventually passing a lovely pond situated just north of the western end of Clarke Avenue. By the way, if you want to access the pathway without going to Steeles, if you travel west on Clarke past Dufferin you will find a number of lay-by parking spots to leave your car and a connection to the pathway at the very end of the street.

The pathway continues north, meandering along the route of the Don River, crossing Glen Shields Blvd. and eventually going under the 407 and Highway 7. At this point the pathway is bordered by various industrial developments above the valley while you continue to travel northwest beside the river and in a mixture of forest and scrub. You next cross Rivermede Road as you continue north to Langstaff Road. At this point the pathway ends although there is an undeveloped link about a block west and north at the end of Planchet Road. Hopefully, in the near future that link, going all the way to Rutherford Road will be developed so that the northern pathway system will connect with the southern one.
In the next edition of W5 we will feature an article on the plans for the future of our pathway system.

The Subway is coming to Yonge Street!

On September 25 over 400 people attended a public consultation meeting with the Viva team coordinating the Yonge Street Subway project. Two things were clear at the meeting: that planning for the new subway is well underway and the Metrolinx report issued the day before has given the project another significant boost.Those attending were informed that the environmental assessment - a requirement for any public project - would be initiated within the next few weeks (it was in fact commenced on October 3) and would be completed by the end of the year.

This process requires that the proponent of a project provide the details of what is being planned and assess the impact of carrying it out. Included in the requirements are that a public meeting must be held to receive feedback and response to the plan. In the past an environmental assessment of a project of this magnitude could take as long as 12 to 18 months, but under a new process recently established by the province, the entire review and approval can be completed in approximately four months.

If successful this would allow the Yonge Street Subway project to get funding approval in the Spring 2009 provincial budget. At the meeting the six stations were announced - Cummer, Steeles, Clarke, Royal Orchard, Longbridge/Lanstaff and Richmond Hill Centre. Discussion also took place regarding construction of the bridge across the Don River, north of Centre Street and various possible alignments of the subway as it entered the Richmond Hill Centre.

On October 6 at the Committee of the Whole, Council approved a recommendation that I brought forward supporting the Yonge Street subway project.

Further details of the plans are available at www.vivayork.com

  LOCAL GOVERNMENT WEEK

There is a brand new way for young people in Ontario and the City of Vaughan to learn about local government. At the Committee of the Whole meeting on October 6, I brought a recommendation to the Committee requesting that the City declare October 19 - 25 Local Government Week this year and continue to hold such a week in future years.

Local Government week was initiated by the Province, the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

The event will bring elementary - Grade 5 - and secondary school - Grade 10 - students together to engage with municipal leaders and officials on the workings of municipalities and how local decisions affect their communities.

The students will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of activities, such as mock municipal referendums and council meetings. All members of Council will be making themselves available to go to classrooms across the City to talk to students about their jobs and how Cities work.

If you have kids in either grade 5 or grade 10 ask them what they learnt about local government the week of October 19 to 25.

I can be reached at 905-832-8585 ext 8349 or by email at alan.shefman@vaughan.ca

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