The Oakville Beaver, W ednesd ay N ovem ber 21, 2001 - A 5 Councillor wants staff to produce Kerr St. `vision' By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Lots o f thought has gone into dow ntow n O akville, the Uptown Core, Bronte Village and, m ore recently, growth north o f D undas Street and Palerm o, but w hat about K err Street? T hat's w hat W ard 2 C ouncillor Fred O liver is asking. A t a recent Town o f Oakville Planning & D evelopm ent Council m eeting, O liver asked for the Town to com e up with a "vision" for K err Street by next M arch -- and asked coun cil to com m it to adopting a direction for K err Street's future. "We need to do som ething with K err Street. It's long over due and we need to do it before it deteriorates to a point and w e'll be sorry," O liver told the com m ittee. It w asn't a tough sell. Council unanim ously supported O liver's request. For the past several m onths, O liver has been sitting on the K err Street Revival Com m ittee under the chairm anship o f his W ard 2 counterpart, Councillor L inda Hardacre. The com m ittee has representatives from the Town, the O akville C ham ber o f Com m erce, the O akville Econom ic D evelopm ent A lliance and several K err Street m erchants -- and more than 80% support from area merchants. W hat it lacks is a plan. "The com m ittee is now at a standstill due to the fact that there is no direction from Council as to w hat should take place on K err Street," O liver stated in a report to council M onday. `T o our know ledge there is no know n "vision" pertaining to K err Street," he stated. O ver the years, some im provem ents have been m ade to parts o f K err Street, but the rest o f the street hasn't been touched. "A m ajor concern is that lack o f im provem ents to K err Street may result in deterioration o f the area, w hich could lead to few er taxes collected through closure o f businesses resulting in the visible deterioration o f the area," reported Oliver. He said the Council m ust decide w hat should be done to im prove K err Street -- and then com m it to it. O liver called for "a determ ination o f w hat the Town will be prepared to do to assist the m erchants and residents o f Kerr Street to m ake it a viable and pleasant street sim ilar to dow n town O akville and Bronte. In other words, Council needs to adopt a `vision' for K err Street," stated Oliver. He said that dow ntow n O akville and Bronte have active Business Im provem ent A rea boards and said the same may be possible for K err Street, "if the Town takes a lead in the pro gram ." T R A D IT IO N S O F C H R IS T M A S C re a tiv e C ra fts & B a te S a le Sat., N ov. 2 4 , 2001 9 :3 0 a .m .-3 :00 p .m . St. Mildred's-Lightboum School 1080 Linbrook Road, Oakville Admission: $2.00 Children 12 & Under FREE in support o f the Food Bank Featuring: Infrastructure system too rich for Halton's blood By Richard Vivian S P E C IA L T O T H E BEAVER Regional council balked spending $240,000 on an infra structure m anagem ent system (IM S) last w eek, saying an alternative bid o f $140,000 needs m ore consideration. The m atter w as sent back to the adm inistration and finance com m ittee, w hich had recom m ended aw arding the project to J.D. Barnes Lim ited, the higher o f the two bidders. "It's hard for me to see how the $100,000 (difference) is justified," Burlington M ayor Rob M aclsaac told council.. The IM S w ould pull together inform ation from various planning and public w orks projects to m ake one database. The database w ould be accessible to both field and office staff. The staff recom m endation to go with the highest bidder cam e from the evaluation process, said Patrick M urphy, com m issioner o f planning and public works. J.D. Barnes scored higher than C uesta System s Inc., the low er bid, in term s o f experience. M urphy had told the adm inistration and finance com m it tee, Barnes w as the only com pany w ith experience to bid on the project, The com pany is currently installing a sim ilar sys tem for the City o f Sault Saint Marie. "We have done the evaluation. As part o f that process, we did interview s w ith both com panies. We feel (J.D.) Barnes has an added value," M urphy said. "We are quite confident w ith the report, with the recom m endation and we se no rea son to defer this matter." 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