Parry Sounds ~ Ideas and Opinions, In and Around Parry Sound

This is the first edition of council notes that will not provide a more or less comprehensive summary of the meeting. The focus here will be on items I found interesting and are worth noting and commenting on. For more comprehensive coverage of the meeting and council decisions the official council minutes are available at the Town of Parry Sound website. And for topical issues I would point you to the North Star, and their online version. The North Star’s reporting goes beyond the meeting proceedings to provide you with background information. And of course Moose-FM provides the highlights of the meeting the next day as on air news and Tweets.

Okay, so what about my thoughts? Well the meeting was efficient and effective with the proceedings complete by about 8:30. All items presented to council were approved. None were controversial.

What did strike me as interesting was the deputation by Tammy Purdy and the town’s requirements to meet the AODA Standard –Integrated Accessibility Standards. They will have a significant impact on the town.

The town website will need to be revised and made more ‘accessible’. Yippee! I’m finally able to find my way around the town’s website but I feel sorry for anybody who only rarely needs to find information on it. It’s not easy and it’s not obvious. So an update and revision will be most welcome. And while the town is at it how about changing the header photo to one that shows Parry Sound? We are the ‘Jewel of the 30,000 Islands’ and don’t need to ‘hide’ behind a photo of the Archipelago.

It looks as though the public transit system will end this year. The many demands of the AODA legislation make it financially impossible for the town to continue the service. Public transit was already difficult to rationalize based on the very low ridership. A potentially tough decision for council was actually made much easier with the AODA requirements. While the town always wants to do the right thing for its residents and visitors it won’t be able to in this case.

That’s it. Public Works received approval for its new trucks and fork lift so they should be good to go for the next few years.