Jennifer Smith

I had a blast at RibFest yesterday. I arrived early so I could take in the Diversity Day festivities that were sharing the Fairgrounds (great idea, BTW), then wandered the midway and browsed the merchant booths until it was time to meet up with my fellow rib judges over at the main stage.

There were seven of us judging the competition including Mayor Krantz, our Public and Catholic school trustees, and a great guy from Z103.5 radio.  We were given ribs from each of the six official "Ribbers" but weren't told which was from who. I still don't know who won (they're announcing today), but Ribber 'B' did seem to be the favourite with a distinct Cajun accent to their sauce. However, all the ribs were excellent.

I'm getting hungry just writing about it.

From what I saw and what I've been hearing from people all weekend, Milton's first RibFest has been a huge hit. I rode past the Fairgrounds again today, and judging by the number of cars parked on surrounding side streets there are even more people there now than there were yesterday.

Congratulations to the organizers!

The Illustrious Panel of Judges

The Presentation of the Ribs

Making my assessment

Native Hoop Dancer at the Diversity Festival

I would like to invite you all to a very special fundraiser - an old fashioned Tea Social at one of Milton's loveliest Heritage homes.

The party starts at 2 p.m. on September 11th at 66 Charles Street. There will be cucumber sandwiches, seed cakes, and (of course) enough tea to float a boat. Or coffee, if you prefer.

But don't worry - no white gloves or fancy hats required.

Aside from the opportunity to socialize and meet new friends, there is a more serious purpose to all this. As we get closer to Election Day, my campaign will be moving into high gear - which means, of course, campaign expenses. Signs, flyers, postage, everything needed to mount an effective campaign - it all costs money. And while I have already received several generous donations, I really need your help to put me over the top.

Please, join me in my campaign to Put Ward 2 First.

(donations are gratefully accepted, but please remember that any contribution over $25 must be made by cheque)

Today was the big day!

After all the hard work that went into our Haunted House Fundraiser a few weeks ago, it was incredibly satisfying to finally be able to present our cheque to the Milton District Hospital Foundation today for the grand total of.... (drumroll please...)

$5717.00!

I can't say enough about all the people who helped make this happen - especially Rick Di Lorenzo. Rick not only came up with the idea and supplied the props and costumes - he single-handedly rustled up almost all of the sponsorships. Zeeshan Hamid was also fabulous as our co-organizer, promoter and Jack of all trades. And of course all of our wonderful volunteers and sponsors.

Speaking of sponsors, please visit our website so you can see all the businesses who so generously donated to the cause, and be sure to thank them personally when you visit their establishments.

Next year will be even bigger and better. Hope to see you there!

Barbeque lovers will be in hog heaven this weekend as Milton hosts its First Annual RibFest. And your truly will be helping to judge the competition!

What I love about this event is that it's not just about the food - it's about "Bringing a Community Together". Their website talks about how it all started when "two local entrepreneurs were talking, and wanted to find a way to bring the New Milton together with the old Milton, for an event large enough to make a difference for local charities."

How perfect is that?

The event runs from Thursday the 26th through Sunday the 29th at the Milton Fairgrounds, and will feature food and craft vendors, a midway, a beer tent, live entertainment, and of course... RIBS!

I'll be judging with the rest of the panel on the Main Stage on Saturday starting at 3:30 pm. Be sure to c'mon over and say hi!

It was another marathon session at last night's Council meeting. I think most were expecting the bulk of the discussion to be around the 2011 Budget Call Report, but by the time they got around to that point in the agenda it was almost as if everyone was too tired to speak any more.

Of course, the current council is rapidly approaching lame duck status, and it was rightly noted that most decisions on the upcoming budget will be in the hands of the next council. Don't forget - at least four, and probably five or six of those council members are going to be replaced by newcomers, all with fresh ideas and fresh eyes on the Town's budget.

One concept that has been floated by several of those potential newcomers is the idea of zero-based budgeting, which essentially means starting from scratch and having each department justify their budget requests on their own merit, regardless of past years' budgets.

I fully support this approach.

Having run my own business - and done my own taxes - for pretty much all of my adult life, I know how easy it is to fall into the trap of doing things the same way year after year, and how essential it is to step back and re-evaluate from time to time. Is this product line really viable or should I drop it? Should I continue with my regular supplier or start looking for a better deal? Are there alternative shipping or packaging options out there that could be saving me money? Will having this new piece of equipment really increase productivity or add value for my customers?

Sometimes all it takes is an outsider coming in to question the status quo.

The current 'rolling budget' approach is to use last year's budget as a starting point and then add for growth and inflation. This works fine when your assessment growth and user fees are growing at the same rate, but in the current economic climate and with the housing market starting to cool, we are beginning to see the flaws in this approach. The Budget Call Report states it baldly:

The modelling at this stage in the budget process indicates that the Town will not have adequate revenue from assessment growth to cover identified operating costs associated with growth. As staff prepare the detailed budget estimates, additional costs and revenues related to expanding programs and services to the new population will be identified. The estimate for the assessment growth will also be further refined as the year progresses. For 2011 it is unlikely that costs associated with growth will be fully offset by the incremental revenue from assessment growth.

In the simplest terms, we're looking at growth related expenditures increasing by 6.15%, but assessment growth of only 5.65%. And when Milton starts to approach build-out, the disparity is only going to get worse.

This is, unfortunately, a foreseeable problem associated with heavy reliance on growth to maintain a balanced budget. Eventually growth slows and stops, but the cost of servicing that growth continues to increase for a time because it's always lagging behind - especially for so-called 'soft services' such as sports and recreation facilities. One need only look over the border to Mississauga for a real world example of what could happen to our taxes when Milton reaches the end of its rapid growth phase.

Unfortunately, this is a problem which stems from decisions made many years ago. What we need to do now is prepare for it, try to compensate for it, look for innovative solutions, and maybe look a little further down the road than just the end of the next fiscal year as we make our own decisions moving into the future.

I got a nice mention in Thursday's Champion in an article about online campaigning:

Election candidates taking to cyber world
Christina Commisso, CANADIAN CHAMPION STAFF


As Ward 8 candidate Zeeshan Hamid thanks his campaign contributors, Ward 2 candidate Jennifer Smith discusses the Town’s wind turbine project while Ward 6 candidate Mike Cluett rallies the CFL to consider moving the Hamilton Tiger Cats to Milton.


One need not look further than Twitter, a social networking website, for a glimpse into this year’s council candidates’ campaigning strategies.


A new wave of council hopefuls are taking to the cyber world, using Facebook, Twitter, personal blogs and web forums to gauge voters’ interests, discuss Milton hot-topics and spread the word as to why they deserve a seat around the council table.


Their message to Milton’s council candidates and incumbents: If you’re not online, you should be.

Hear, hear.

If you are reading this, you know how important an online presence is to my campaign. What you may not know is that my netroots go back considerably further than that. I wrote my first computer program on bubble cards in grade 10. I was hooked up to the internet back when Usenet and text browsers were state of the art. I created my first website in December of 1995 - the same year that eBay debuted - and I still know how to use an href tag.

I've been blogging on subjects ranging from local and federal politics to foreign policy to Canadian film and television since 2007. So when I registered my candidacy, the first thing I did was set up this website.

The article notes that about half of the currently registered candidates have a website. While that is true, not all websites are created equal. Some are nothing but a front page with an email address. Others haven't been updated in months.

That's just not good enough.

The best campaign websites (and I like to count my own in that category) don't just display information about the candidate. They actively engage voters in a dialogue on the issues by encouraging reader comments and integrating social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter.

None of this requires any particularly advanced computer skills. Not these days. Anyone who can open a web browser can set up a blog-style website and a Facebook account. And if they can't, they can get their grandkids to show them. It requires nothing more that the effort, and a willingness to expose one's thoughts and opinions to public scrutiny and debate.

What is true for online campaigning should be equally true after the election. You have a right to know what your councillor is doing on your behalf, and what issues are being decided on before those decisions are finalized. You shouldn't have to physically attend every town council meeting to find these things out. And you shouldn't have to wait for an election year for your councillor to contact you - whether by phone, email, Facebook, Twitter, or a knock on your door.

With the new ward system shaking things up this year, we are going to be seeing a number of new faces around the council chamber. Many of them are going to be younger and more tech-savvy than their predecessors, and many - including myself - are committed to making this sort of open, interactive communication an everyday part of how you relate to your municipal representatives.

It's a brand new day. Welcome to the 21st century.

I recently received an email from an organization called Halton Enablers of Renewable Energy (HERE!) which is promoting the use of solar, geothermal and other renewables through various events and workshops, as well as by connecting property owners with trusted vendors.

Here are a few of their upcoming events:

GeoTour
Thursday, August 12, 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Georgetown
Are you thinking about a cost-effective, greener, and more efficient way to heat and cool your home? HERE! will be having its first ever Geothermal Information Session and GeoTour, featuring thermal technology specialist Chris Braekevelt.

HERE! Focus Group
Thursday August 19, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m., downtown Oakville
Come join us for an evening of discussion surrounding the HERE! Project. We are looking for feedback to make the HERE! experience more valuable.

Solar Tour
Sunday, August 29 in North Milton
Details to follow shortly.

Renewable Energy Fair
Saturday September 11, 1:00-4:00, Halton Regional Centre on Bronte Road
There will be solar and geothermal vendor displays and workshops on solar, geothermal, and energy conservation. This is sure to be an exciting event for those of you that want to connect directly with vendors or participate in our workshops.

Lots more on the Halton Environmental Network website.

Aside from the obvious environmental benefits of renewable energy, there are also definite economic advantages, especially for larger projects when costed out over the long term.  Which is why the Town of Milton is starting to incorporate renewable energy into capital projects, like the Sports Centre expansion which will include a geothermal heating system.

The Town is also considering a pilot project that would see two vertical wind turbines installed in front of the Sports Centre. These are not the giant propeller-like windmills you've seen - they are much smaller and by all accounts considerably quieter, although noise is something they will definitely be monitoring as part of the project.



There will be an Open House on the project on Thursday August 19th from 7:00 - 8:30 pm at the Milton Sports Centre if you want to find out more. I'll see you there!

Whew! What a weekend!

Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our organizers, volunteers and sponsors, the first annual Milton Haunted House exceeded all expectations. We're still tallying expenses and working out our exact totals, but we're definitely going to be presenting a sizable cheque to the Milton District Hospital Foundation. And next year is sure to be even bigger and better.

What was truly amazing about this event was the short period of time in which it was all brought together. Rick Di Lorenzo first contacted Zeeshan Hamid and myself around the beginning of June with his crazy idea for a summertime Haunted House. Somehow over the next eight weeks we managed to make arrangements with the Pirate Festival and MDHF, set up the website and Facebook page, line up corporate sponsors, recruit a couple of dozen volunteers, run two promotional events, distribute promotional material, send out press releases... and that was before we even had to set anything up!

Our volunteers were incredible. Having donned a couple of those costumes myself over the weekend, I can tell you that there are few things more unpleasant than wearing a full head rubber mask inside a tent with the humidex in the high thirties. Ick. And some of them kept at it for hours and hours.

This is why Halloween is in the fall.

We had a number of local notables come out and help - Mike Cluett, Jan Mowbray, Carey dePass, Colin Best and his son, Donna Danielli and her daughter, to name but a few.  What surprised me was the number of folks who came all the way from Toronto and elsewhere. I wish I knew all their names, but many were associated with the Toronto Zombie Walk and just came out to dress up, have fun, and help with a good cause.

Extra special thanks to Jennifer Sheehan who did some great make-up effects for several of the characters, thus sparing them from having to wear the dreaded rubber masks. More of that next year, please.

I also want everyone to know that while Zeeshan and I worked pretty hard on all this, our efforts were nothing compared to Rick's. Not only did he provide the props, costumes and decor, he also found most of the volunteers, got pretty much all of the sponsorship money lined up, and worked literally from dawn to dusk setting up and tearing down this enormous attraction. So if anyone in Ward 7 is wondering if Rick Di Lorenzo will work hard for them on council, I can pretty much guarantee that the answer is yes.

Here are a few photos from the weekend. We all managed to forget to bring our cameras (doh!), so I took these with my phone. Hopefully more will be trickling in from the press and others who were there.

See you next year!

UPDATE: Here's a link to the article in the Milton Champion, and the one in Snap! Milton. More to come!