New mayor in, million dollar event out
Amelia ChristensenRose looks back to the pages of Hamilton Press in 2010, as part of our series
Almost seven years to the day, Julie Hardaker was appointed mayor of Hamilton.
The October 13 edition of Hamilton Press highlighted 2010 as the year Hardaker took over the role from Bob Simcock.
A reporter at the time wrote that ‘‘enough voters agreed with Hardaker’s view that Hamilton needs a new direction’’ and that Hardaker was planning on putting two of her policies into effect immediately.
‘‘I’m a doer,’’ she said in the front-page story.
Only three of the elected councillors of 2010 are still sitting in council.
Now deputy mayor, Martin Gallagher had the most votes that year, with Angela O’Leary and Dave Macpherson coming 10th and 11th respectively.
An afternoon of revelry and entertainment on October 16 marked the 100th anniversary of the Hamilton Traffic Bridge, also known as the Victoria Bridge or the Brewery Bridge.
The bridge connected Victoria St to Grey St and was built as a replacement for the wooden Hamilton Union Bridge.
Hamilton East Community Trust chairwoman Lois Livingston said an afternoon of entertainment in Memorial Park would culminate in a lighting display of the bridge as darkness falls, reported Geoff Lewis.
Livingston was the chairwoman of the trust for nine years. She died in November 2016, after ongoing health problems.
In that same edition, reporter Nick Silvester told the story of Doug Dixon turning his connection to Hamilton’s history into inspiration for his projects.
Dixon had made a replica of the Union Bridge, the first bridge in Hamilton. The Union Bridge was built in 1879 and was orig- inally a toll bridge costing 15c for a horse and cart and 1c for a pedestrian.
Dixon said the replica took around 300 hours over five months to complete.
While researching the bridge, Dixon found out that his greatgrandfather may have been the band leader at the opening of the Union Bridge.
The last issue of 2010 had Hamilton’s new mayor talking ‘‘tough on V8s’’ after costs to the city were estimated to be more than $27 million when they had initially been reporter at around $7.95m.
In 2006, Michael Redman, the mayor at the time, said the Hamilton 400 would cost ratepayers $7m over seven years but it ended up being $37.4m in just three.
The last race was in 2012.