{"id":23907,"date":"2019-05-31T13:12:23","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T17:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23907"},"modified":"2019-05-31T13:12:33","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T17:12:33","slug":"getting-things-done-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/getting-things-done-12\/","title":{"rendered":"GETTING THINGS DONE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Mayor Tom Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this past week\u2019s\nGeneral Committee meeting, Council discussed the proposed \u201clink\u201d between the\nLibrary and the new addition to the Church Street School in Library Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in March, when\nCouncil approved funding for Library Square, Council also asked staff to\ninvestigate creating a possible pedestrian link between the two buildings to\nprovide a dry\/temperature-controlled route for residents to get from one\nfacility to the other and potentially connect them to Yonge Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that is exactly\nwhat the proposed link does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pedestrian link is\na feature that our Library CEO felt would be much needed in Library Square as\nit will connect residents to both facilities and enhance the uniqueness of this\nspace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I agreed with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe the\npedestrian bridge between the two buildings helps complete the Square and\nfosters the development of the unique gathering place that we envision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed link is\nestimated to cost $3.5 million with 1.9 million of the that coming from the\nLibrary Services Development Charges reserve fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As folks already know,\ndevelopment charges \u2013 or DCs \u2013 are charges that developers pay to help off set\nmunicipal costs for infrastructure such as roads, amenities, etc., that will be\nneeded for new development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And since we\u2019re\ntalking about DCs, I just have to point out that DCs do not fully pay for\ngrowth \u2013 they only cover about 70 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councils have to find\nother ways to cover the remaining 30 per cent of infrastructure costs; as a\nresult, municipalities across this country are facing an infrastructure deficit\nover $60 billion.  And things will get worse for municipalities in Ontario\nif Bill 108 goes forward in its current state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the proposed\nchanges outlined in Bill 108 is to scale back DC charges \u2013 how and what\nmunicipalities can collect to offset its hard and soft costs; ultimately,\nputting a bigger burden on the taxpayer to pay for infrastructure needs in our\ncommunity. But that is for another article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With regards to the\nlink between the Library and the new addition to Church Street school, as the\nuse of DCs are limited to specific municipal costs such as roads, amenities,\netc., and as the proposed link is specific to the library and\/or library\nservices, its costs are eligible for DC funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a meeting of the\nLibrary Board, the Board unanimously approved using the DC funds for the link.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The continued support\nof the Library Board and collaboration with Council is instrumental in moving\nLibrary Square from concept to reality<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is indeed\nexciting times for our downtown and our community!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Committee approved the above-ground link on a\nvote of 5-2 (Councillor Gaertner and Gallo opposed); the final vote will need\nto be ratified at Council.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mayor Tom Mrakas At this past week\u2019s General Committee meeting, Council discussed the proposed \u201clink\u201d between the Library and the new addition to the Church Street School in Library Square. Back in March, when Council approved funding for Library Square, Council also asked staff to investigate creating a possible pedestrian link between the two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6dB","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 11:03:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}