By Crystal Clavet
Centretown residents want cleaner and greener streets, and they support raising taxes if it means they get what they want.
At a packed budget consultation meeting Nov. 28, residents of the downtown core told Coun. Diane Holmes and city staff that snow removal and street revitalization were among their primary concerns.
Aileen Leo and other residents said they were willing to accept a tax increase to improve city services.
Luciano Iacovitti said the lack of snow removal on his street is such a problem that it’s difficult to get in and out of his driveway.
“Our neighbourhoods are turning into parking lots,” he said. “You can at least take away the snow so when we back out of our driveways we’re not clipping someone.”
City council has proposed an additional $4 million for salting and snow removal in its draft budget tabled in November, doubling the amount for snow removal.
Max Miner, the city’s manager of road operations, said residential snow removal will be concentrated in the downtown core because of complaints the city heard last year.
Miner said after the problems the city faced with last year’s storms, his department consulted Environment Canada to see if there was a better way to be prepared.
“The Ottawa Valley is becoming the ‘ice belt.’ We’re getting faster freezes and rain on top of snow,” Miner said. “This will result in increased snow removal to improve walkability. We have gotten blades to bring the ice down. We’re going to be more like boy scouts and stay ahead of flash freezes.”
Several people at the meeting also voiced concerns over the lack of trees downtown, especially on the edge of parking lots.
“I would like to see trees everywhere. Let’s get to the point where we’re inundated with trees and people are saying they can’t take anymore,” said resident John Schoiler.
About $8 million has been proposed for the reconstruction and streetscaping of Bank Street, Preston Street and Laurier Avenue West.
Others simply want to see the grass cut in parks, the litter removed and the leaves cleaned up on streets and sidewalks. Ray Yantha, the city’s manager of parks and forestry, said the problem is getting the city back to where it was before amalgamation.
“The thing that suffered was aesthetics,” Yantha said.
“Now money will go to reinstating the programs — the grass-cutting, the street-sweeping. The cuts were to core areas of the city.”
Residents are also concerned about increased user fees for recreation facilities. Carol Sisson said increased fees worry her because a sense of community will be lost if people cannot get together at a common pool or arena.
Other issues that were raised involved garbage collection, which the city wanted to move to once every two weeks, and changes in the way residents are billed for this collection. The motion to change collection was defeated by council Nov. 30.
Ken Hughes, the city’s manager of revenue, said his department has suggested moving the fire supply charge and garbage collection from the tax bill to the utility bill. Hughes said this won’t cost residents more – it will simply be another way of paying.
The city expects to make $29 million from user fees this year. These revenues come from services such as water meters, transit fees, recreation and garbage.
Hughes said taxpayers can expect an increase of six per cent if they receive a water, fire and garbage utility bill, as well as a half per cent for police.
Anyone who missed the meeting can call the budget hotline at 580-9672 or contact Holmes.