Of loon calls and big ideas

Whitehead has calls for upscale toboganning and two-way Queen Street

Terry Whitehead is a man in motion these days.

Or, more correctly, a man with motions.

Right now the west Mountain councillor has at least three big proposals stacking up on city’s council’s flight deck.

You may have already read about them in The Spec.

But before recapping, let’s be upfront about something.

It may be tempting to see this sudden flurry of ideas as an attempt by Whitehead to divert attention from his kooky impression of a loon call, which still has the rest of council hooting with laughter.

In case you missed it, for some reason Whitehead, who grew up in the north, recently attempted to reproduce a loon wail while speaking to the morning assembly at St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School.

You can see the screwy results — but unfortunately not the faces of the students and teaching staff — around the four-minute mark at: bit.ly/LoonCall. But I don’t think Whitehead, who arguably has the thickest skin on council, is trying to deflect attention from that flighty moment. These proposals are really about following through on political goals and commitments.

His first grabber is restoring the derelict Cross of Lorraine, which for decades shone brightly on the Chedoke brow lands as a symbol of hope in the fight against tuberculosis.

Whitehead is seeking council’s approval for a staff feasibility study on making the landmark shine again as a memorial to the old Mountain Sanatorium.

Secondly, he’s trying to fire up the stalled conversion of Queen Street to two-way traffic, principally to break the logjam for Mountain commuters heading to and from the Main and King arterials.

Converting Queen — the border between Aidan Johnson’s Ward 1 and Jason Farr’s Ward 2 — is an old goal for many. Whitehead is giving it fresh impetus as the result of traffic snarls he attributes to the installation of bike lanes.

Rush-hour motorists coming off the Queen Street hill are basically forced onto Herkimer and Bay streets to get to the arterials, according to Whitehead. The problem, he says, is bike lanes on Herkimer and the newly-installed ones on Bay are curbing flow and adding several minutes to travel time.

Currently Queen is only two-way between the Queen Street hill and Herkimer.

Whitehead figures making it twoway to Main and King will give Mountain drivers a much-needed alternative to the Herkimer to Bay route Now for the winter park. Until recently, the reservoir at Garth and Stone Church was arguably best known to Hamiltonians as the location of the tobogganing accident which a few years ago cost taxpayers some $900,000 in liability payments.

But last year council designated the reservoir as one of four legally sanctioned toboggan hills.

Using Ward 8 area rating money, Whitehead wants staff to put together a concept plan for making the reservoir a winter destination.

He envisions grabbing the snowmaking equipment used at the former Chedoke ski hill, which closed in 2003, to create a solid base for tobogganing and possibly tubing and then, eventually, creating an outdoor skating rink and bringing in food trucks.

Whitehead sees it as a way to pull kids away from their computer games and out into the fresh air for some family activity and fun.

Unfortunately, there’s a hitch. The Chedoke snowmaker and grooming machine have already been auctioned off because they were pretty obsolete, according to Rom D’Angelo, director of city facilities.

Mind you, that doesn’t necessarily mean Whitehead’s dream of a winter wonderland will evaporate.

It’s always possible to purchase new equipment, depending on the cost and how much area rating money ends up on the table.

Meanwhile, while waiting for all these commendable proposals to gain altitude, perhaps Whitehead can bring the loon’s haunting yodel to ground.

Andrew Dreschel’s commentary appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. adreschel@thespec.com 905-526-3495 @AndrewDreschel