Friday, April 24, 2009

Beacon Herald Article April 23, 2009

Take the road less travelled
Posted By DONAL O'CONNOR, Staff Reporter


Area farmers who could be impacted by "improvements" to the main transportation route between Stratford and New Hamburg rallied through Stratford yesterday on tractors under the slogan "Improve Existing Roads, Preserve our Farmland, Protect our Earth." For more Click here.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The Consultants Response to ABC

The response to our Feb 6th, 2009 brief and accompanying recommendations came in to-day at 12:14 AM. It has not been possible to read, research and digest the contents of this reply, thoroughly. The net effect is that our community has not received an appropriate reply soon enough, to be of assistance to members at the PIC 2c to-day.

ABC and its members will have to sit down and discuss the most appropriate response. More information will follow when it is available.


Hwy 7&8 Response to ABC Recommendations_Apr21-09[1]

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Lorne Avenue being considered

The article below is from the April 21, 2009 edition of the Beacon Herald.

Lorne Avenue being considered as new corridor alternative
By DONAL O'CONNOR

A new corridor alternative that would run along Lorne Avenue has been identified by the Highway 7/8 study aimed at improving transportation between Stratford and New Hamburg. See complete article

Monday, April 20, 2009

Letter to the Editor April 18, 2009

From the Beacon Herald's "Opinion' section:

Perth County farms are for farming, not for cars

On April 22 the Ministry of Transportation will be holding a public information meeting at the Festival Inn in Stratford from 4-8 p.m. and they are going to be there with its sales pitch that Stratford needs a new bypass around Stratford that would take local land producing local food for the local economy out of production and altering future viability of many dairy and livestock producers.

The Ministry of Transportation also has another alternative for bypassing Stratford that it will be displaying and, for the most part, uses existing roads for the bypass. This option still has many issues affecting farmers. One of the main issues is that this bypass uses existing roads on the west side of Stratford but on the east side of Stratford puts this bypass through the middle of many highly productive agricultural farms. This proposal has some merit but still needs a lot of change.

This is where we need the people of Stratford, our valuable consumers of local food, to come out to this meeting and tell the Ministry of Transportation and their consulting team that the Ministry of Transportation should work on a bypass of Stratford that concentrates on using existing roads. We need safe roads not more roads.

Coincidence or not, April 22 is also Earth Day so come make your contribution to Earth Day by keeping more local land for local consumption and by making the statement to keep our farms green.


John Van Dyk
RR 2 Tavistock

Saturday, April 11, 2009

NEW Public Information Centre (PIC) #2c

The Consultants and the MTO have brought forward another PIC:

Wednesday April 22, 2009
Festival Inn - Shakespeare Room
1144 Ontario St. Stratford
4:00 pm - 8:00 pm

All details have been in the paper and some of us have received a mailing. For anyone else see below.

Hwy7_8PIC2CNotice