An open letter to the Council of Orangeville.

Re: Budget discussions

It is unbelievable in this day and age, when such emphasis is being placed on physical fitness, that council is again considering the closing of Tony Rose Pool to decrease the tax increase. There are several seniors who walk to Tony Rose Pool for the lane swims, open swims and fitness

programs. Many of them will not be able to get to Alder Street if this change becomes effective. There are several doctors and one of your councillors who use the Tony Rose Pool regularly for relaxation and stress relief. They are able to use the Tony Rose Pool, if even for only a short time, whereas the Alder Street Pool would be too far to go to fit into their busy schedules.

I personally swim one hour a day (12:00 to 1:00 p.m.) five days a week at the Tony Rose Pool. The lane swims at Alder Street are mainly shared use of the pool so there are only one or two lanes with the rest of the pool being used for other activities. Those lanes are often too crowded while the 6 lanes at Tony Rose are all being used but are not so crowded that a slow swimmer might as well go home as is usually the case at the Alder Street Pool. A consolidation of time use for some activities at Tony Rose might be in order but there is a real need for Tony Rose Pool to stay open.

It used to be that Departments were given a guide line percentage figure to guide them in preparing their budget requests. Lately, they have just been asked to present their budget requests and, to no surprise, they all have lengthy wish lists and their requests have been not well thought out. Council really needs to take a stronger position with these requests and needs to know that the request is reasonable. In some cases the administration costs are too high.

It is quite noticeable that no substantial cuts are being suggested for the hockey or lacrosse areas. Are the swimmers not as important?

One area that could be cut would be the sidewalk plowing. There are some streets in town that don't have sidewalks and children and adults have to walk on the roadway. On those streets that do have sidewalks it is considered necessary to plow them at great expense. On at least three days this past winter the sidewalk plow went past my place on a sunny day with no forecast of snow on the way (and no snow did come for two or three days) and it was plowing nothing while putting on salt and sand unnecessarily.

I trust that this matter will be given very careful consideration and that common sense will prevail.

Irwin L. Henderson

Orangeville