Bus pass plan could help needy
Council Notebook: Ede, O’Connor might still get streets
What would it take to provide free bus passes to homeless people and those living on low income?
That’s what council wants to know, following a call by Wayne Campbell for a closer look at it.
The veteran councillor is a proponent for doing more to integrate those people into the community. Without transportation, he says, they’re often left out of community activities and have to fend for themselves for things as basic as visits to a doctor.
Staff will also examine ways to make them more aware of free or low-cost programs and classes they could join, that go on every week at clubs and agencies around Niagara Falls.
TOY DRIVE IS MONDAY
Toys will be collected Monday for the third annual Christmas drive that honours Dalton Jacques, a teenager who died in March 2016 after a two-year battle with cancer.
The 15-year-old Welland boy was one of the Heater’s Heroes, children dealing with cancer who take part in a fundraising day each year organized by city councillor Mike Strange.
“I became really good friends with him, he was a great kid,” Strange said Tuesday.
When he was in palliative care in late 2015 at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, Dalton’s wish was that other children there, and their families staying at the Ronald McDonald House, receive gifts for Christmas.
For this year’s drive, unwrapped children’s gifts or gift cards can be dropped off at Boston Pizza on Morrison Street in Niagara Falls from 5 to 8 p.m. on Dec. 17. Presents will be distributed the next day.
“We’d like to put a smile on the faces of some of these kids who have to spend the holidays in the hospital,” Strange said.
BUSIER YEAR AHEAD FOR COUNCIL
City councillors can look forward to a little more face time together next year.
Largely due to the municipal election in October, council held only 13 scheduled meetings this year. Sometimes the gap between dates reached six weeks, and at one point – from a special meeting Sept. 17 to the next council meeting Nov. 13, with the election in between on Oct. 22 – eight weeks.
The scarcity of meetings created what staff called “administrative challenges” in doing municipal business.
Tuesday night, members approved a new schedule that will see them meet 17 times in 2019 with gaps of no more than four weeks between meeting.
NAME THAT STREET
Two of Niagara Falls’ late, beloved citizens might get streets named in their honour after all.
In March, council heard the city’s recreation committee opposed naming parks after Don Ede and Dan O’Connor. Committee members felt both men had already been properly recognized for their community service.
In response, council said it wanted the two considered for future street naming and, if staff didn’t support that, for an explanation.
In a report Tuesday, staff said both names would present problems – street names should generally be limited to one word, they said.
Also, guidelines discourage the use of punctuation marks like apostrophes, and ‘Don Ede’ could be difficult to pronounce or understand during a 911 call.
Citing numerous examples of streets with two-word names, like Tulip Tree Drive, councillor Victor Pietrangelo said “I don’t agree … one of the reasons given is that people might mispronounce the name. That’s true of everything.”
Council voted to submit both names as suitable for developers to choose from when new streets are built.
Ede, who died in 2016, was known as Mr. Chippawa for his passion for the community. O’Connor died in 1982, and is considered the founding father of minor soccer in Niagara Falls.