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Ratified by one vote after 3 a.m., the city’s temporary bus terminal will move to North Street.
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Ratified by one vote after 3 a.m., the city’s temporary bus terminal will move to North Street.

In a record–setting lengthy council meeting, for the third straight week council heard from opponents about where a temporary South Side bus terminal should go. While the temporary site was approved near North Street and Violet Street last week, council received over a dozen letters of opposition to the site selection and a deputation from Mike McNabb from Schufa Investments Ltd. McNabb owns the former Catholic School Board building at 212 E. Miles Street. McNabb said his main concern is that businesses and residents in the area were not consulted when the city made its decision. McNabb said he was disappointed with communication from the city, which included a flyer informing businesses owners of the decision.

"That flyer to me was a disaster. It came after the council decision and said the deal was done," McNabb said. "On top of that it was only delivered to store fronts."

McNabb said he’s also concerned because his building will be surrounded on three sides by the proposed site. From his property becoming an environmental hazard after several years of bus travel to noise, to a potential loss of tenants, McNabb said the temporary bus terminal should not be on North Street and Violet Street.

"These buses will be circling that building 18 hours a day," McNabb said. "How could anybody work in that?"

Although council toured the site two Sundays ago, McNabb said looks can be deceiving. Because his parking lot looks vacant on weekends, council would not be aware of the over 70 people that use his building during weekdays.

Because the surrounding buildings diminish sight lines around the site, McNabb added security would be an issue for people going to and from the bus shelters.

"You can have all the police in the world at the bus depot but you still have to get to and from it," McNabb said.

Coun. Rebecca Johnson, who was out of the city during last week’s meeting, said she doesn’t think the North Street location would have enough room for buses and pedestrians using the area.

"It’s full of cars there. I don’t know how we’re going to be able to manage all that," said Johnson.

Coun. Mark Bentz said he would rather have the permanent temporary site because it is public property. With the North Street location, which makes him uncomfortable, Bentz said people will be trespassing on private property all of the time just to get from one bus to another.

"How are you going to keep people from crossing parking lots and damaging cars?," Bentz said.

Transportation and Works manager Darrell Matson said the city has already approved $200,000 in the 2010 budget for transit police. Matson said plans for the North Street site have not been finalized but will take businesses and residents in the area into consideration and that they will be consulted before plans move ahead.

Voters won’t get to decide how many members future councils will have after a resolution was voted down Monday.

Coun. Larry Hebert had put forward a resolution for a plebiscite next election asking whether the number of councillors should be reduced from 12 to 8. Hebert said in his resolution that reducing the number of councillors could be more efficient in decision making and would show the city’s commitment to cutting costs. Coun. Andrew Foulds disagreed. Foulds said he’s worried when people try to streamline council and make democracy more efficient. Having less councillors would mean less representation for the city added Foulds.

"I think democracy is sometimes messy. And I think having 13 people speaking around this table voicing the issues of the people is valuable," said Foulds.

Coun. Rebecca Johnson, who supported the motion, said not having the public vote on what council should look like is actually less democratic.

"We are determining what our city is going to have," Johnson said. "That’s not a democracy ladies and gentleman that’s a dictatorship."

Also Monday, a local training corporation will have to wait for forgiveness on a loan after a council decision.

The Thunder Bay and Regional Protective Emergency Services Training Corporation had asked for council to forgive a $572,040 loan. But after a recommendation from administration, the matter will be deferred until February 2011. The loan is part of phase one of the not-for-profit’s plan which constructed the Fire Training Complex. The city lent TBRPEST money, gave $660,000, land and a class A pumper as part of the $4.4 million facility.

TBRPEST board members worried that without the loan forgiveness, the organization’s only outstanding debt, phase two of its plan, an indoor shooting range, would be in jeopardy. TBRPEST member Mary Long-Irwin said the loan was necessary after funding from the federal government fell through.

"We’ve come up short on the first phase," said Irwin. "We’re asking the city to forgive that loan so we can move forward to phase 2."

Council did approve the city’s $150,000 contribution to the $1.6 million indoor shooting range for phase 2 of the TBRPEST plan.

The city will be asking for public for their input on a proposed multi-purpose event centre.
The Preliminary Public Consultation Strategy, approved Monday night, will include two open houses with public workshops and focus groups with potential users of the site and students. The workshops will include an overview of the plan, question and answer forums and feedback stations. The information gathered by the city will be included in the Phase 2 feasibility study of the proposed $60 million facility which will be presented to council in June.

Coun. Joe Virdiramo wanted to know what happens if a low number of people turn up for the open houses and focus groups. While he expects a good turnout, city manager Tim Commisso said administration has already been directed to complete a phase 2 study. Commisso said a low turnout would indicate little public opposition to a new multi-purpose arena.

"If we get a low turnout that says to me it’s not enough of an issue that people are concerned about," said Commisso.

Commisso cautioned that specific sites would not be discussed at the meetings. Because no decisions have been made, Commisso added there is no promise that a new arena would be built in the coming years.

"There’s nothing that says we need to do this tomorrow," Commisso said. "We’re going to do our best we’re going to pursue it but there are no guarantees."

The first open house and workshop is scheduled for May 6 at the DaVinci Centre starting at 6:30 p.m. A second open house and workshop will be held May 13 at the Italian Cultural Centre also at 6:30 p.m. Dates and times for focus groups will occur sometime next month but have yet to be determined.





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