{"id":8496,"date":"2014-10-15T14:04:41","date_gmt":"2014-10-15T18:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8496"},"modified":"2014-10-29T17:43:41","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T21:43:41","slug":"vote-2014-recreation-and-traffic-top-candidate-mark-etwells-priority-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/vote-2014-recreation-and-traffic-top-candidate-mark-etwells-priority-list\/","title":{"rendered":"VOTE 2014: Recreation and traffic top candidate Mark Etwell\u2019s priority list"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2014-10-16-02\"
\nBy Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aurora resident Mark Etwell has always had an interest in getting involved in the civic process, but with two young kids there often wasn\u2019t enough time to give a leap into the political ring much consideration \u2013 but when things hit close to home, it is time for some re-evaluation.<\/p>\n

As a resident on Conover Avenue, one issue that hit particularly close to home was the future of open space on Mavrinac Boulevard residents are pushing to preserve as open green space and parkland. Council ultimately decided to take landowners to court earlier this year to secure their first right of refusal to purchase the land under terms originally set out in the last decade, but in Mr. Etwell\u2019s view, Council dropped the ball. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe way they handled it wasn\u2019t ideal,\u201d says Mr. Etwell of Council. \u201cThey weren\u2019t really aware this was going on and they weren\u2019t really paying attention to things. Now there is a legal battle which has additional costs to it, but they didn\u2019t look into it at first to know what was going on. On Conover we have a big dirt pile that is supposed to be a school or park as well [and] the concern on Mavrinac could very well happen on Conover years down the road. It is better to be on top of it than behind it and people should learn from their mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

A long-time coach for various sports, most recently with the York Simcoe Bucs football club, Mr. Etwell says there are significant field shortages in Aurora for a variety of sports and with significant growth set to hit Aurora it is a problem that is only going to grow. He says he sees a potential solution for this field shortage in Mavrinac Park, but points to recreation facilities as a top priority if elected to Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I coached for the Aurora Jays [Baseball Club] they are little kids but we didn\u2019t have enough diamonds or the ability to practice,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are kids in various age groups that are trying to share the diamonds, which is an issue. With the Bucs there are so few practice fields that most of the season we have been practicing on a baseball diamond. Now that the baseball season is over that is pretty much the only space we have available to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growth will also have an adverse impact on traffic flows, he adds, with a particular focus on the stretch of Wellington Street East between Industrial Parkway and Yonge. That is a particular challenge, he said, particularly at peak times for GO Transit, which spills over into parking issues in nearby residential neighbourhoods, such as parking spaces around Town Park. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the mayoral candidates was talking about adding a St. John\u2019s Sideroad exit onto the 404, but that doesn\u2019t make sense to me because St. John\u2019s already is a single lane and I think an exit [there] onto the 404 would help people from Newmarket, but not overly help people from Aurora.\u201d
\nIn finding adequate spaces for Aurora\u2019s sports teams and solutions for local traffic woes, Mr. Etwell says the biggest challenge Council will have over the next four years is striking a delicate balance for taxpayers.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have talked to me about increasing taxes versus the expenditures and a lot of the things I am talking about like traffic flows and sports facilities,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of those have costs associated with them, but I think that\u2019s the lifestyle we have become accustomed to as Aurorans. We have high standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to MoneySense\u2019s listing of top places to live, we\u2019re #24 in Canada for Top Places To Live, but we\u2019re in the Top 10 for highest household income. I would prefer that to be in a different order, the Top 10 place to live with our household income a little lower. If we have the money in our households, I don\u2019t think tax increases should be what they are really concerned about. The biggest concern we have is spending the money wisely and spending the money where it is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the next week and a half, Mr. Etwell says he is particularly looking forward to meeting more people and interacting with his fellow candidates. While he says you won\u2019t find his signs out on the road or campaign literature coming to your door for environmental reasons, he would like to see alternatives to that style of campaigning, citing a letter in last week\u2019s edition from former NDP candidate Angus Duff suggesting political hopefuls should take their campaigns online.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it would put everyone on a very equal playing field,\u201d says Mr. Etwell. \u201cJust look at the pricing of signs. They can be very expensive. They pave the personal financial backing to run for elections, which isn\u2019t really what the election should be based on.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora resident Mark Etwell has always had an interest in getting involved in the civic process, but with two young kids there often wasn\u2019t enough time to give a leap into the political ring much consideration \u2013 but when things hit close to home, it is time for some re-evaluation.<\/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":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vote-2014"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2d2","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 21:17:51","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\/8496","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=8496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8496\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}