KENILWORTH – Photo radar could be in the future for Wellington County.
On March 9, Ward 4 Wellington County councillor Steve O’Neill, updated Wellington North councillors on what is happening at the upper tier.
Photo radar
O’Neill said the province has allowed photo radar to be set up by municipalities in school and community safety zones.
He said the concept was discussed at the police services board meeting in January and staff were directed to bring forward a report on financial implications.
O’Neill said there are a couple of schools located on county roads this could pertain to as well as a few community safety zones.
He understood local municipalities also have the option of implementing the photo radar as well.
Mayor Andy Lennox said the use of photo radar is not being limited to county roads.
“I know some of our neighbouring municipalities are pretty keen on proceeding with this quickly,” Lennox added.
Solid Waste
O’Neill said the use of single use plastics was part of a staff information report recent committee meeting at the county.
He said the federal government has talked about banning the use of single use plastics in 2021.
“This report updated committee members on what staff have learned and what other municipalities have done on their own.”
He added “… and the county has an app … once downloaded it will help you with schedules and provide information about solid waste services such as organic waste pickup. The solid waste news will be available on the app as we get closer to the organics startup.”
He added progress continues as the Riverstown Landfill Site to have phase two ready to accept materials in 2020.
Lennox noted the Recycle App is also intended to assist with the transition to organic waste pickup.
High speed internet
O’Neill noted the county received $12 million from the province and is awarding four contracts to implement high speed internet projects in Wellington County for under-serviced rural areas.
In January SWIFT and the province awarded contracts to four projects in Wellington.
One project has fibre trunks stopping just outside of Arthur on Highway 6, he said.
It runs up Wellington Road 17 and branches out along County Road 8 just short of Drayton. It will serve about 300 homes, he added.
O’Neill said another projects is in the Inverhaugh and Ariss areas – serving about 550 homes.
Another project between Rockwood and Belwood is anticipated to serve up to 1,700 homes.
A project in Eden Mills will serve about 250 people, O’Neill said.
O’Neill noted Norfolk and Lambton counties each recieved similar amounts of money.
Ride Well
O’Neill said ridership is slowly growing for the county’s ride sharing service, Ride Well.
He added recent snow days caused the ridership to drop slightly.
Staff are meeting with community groups to expalain and promote the service. O’Neil added staff are also working on different payment options after getting feedbackfrom riders.
“Some people don’t feel comfortable handing out their credit card information on an app.”
O’Neill said the service does work well and he had used it a few times to get to Guelph and Elora.
“It’s fairly inexpensive I’ve found.”
He added discussions are being held with employers to see if a fit can be found so that employees can get to work using Ride Well.
