public works • mackaycartoons

Thursday March 26, 2014

March 25, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 26, 2014

Hamilton’s heavy truck fleet gets a failing safety grade

A troubling spike in collisions by municipal garbage trucks and plows has downgraded the city’s provincial safety rating — and even threatens its legal ability to put those vehicles on the road.

Hamilton’s roughly 400 “commercial” vehicles — those weighing more than 4,500 kilograms, but excluding transit and emergency services — were involved in 120 collisions and 29 convictions over the past two years, according to Ministry of Transportation data.

That’s left the city with a “conditional” provincial safety rating and a violation rate of 87.4 per cent — one of the highest rates among Ontario municipalities. The problems have spurred a warning letter, safety rating downgrade and Feb. 11 meeting with the ministry.

The province considers 35 per cent or less to be “satisfactory,” while violation rates approaching 100 per cent can spur sanctions as severe as forcing an operator to park its fleet.

“It’s a high violation rate,” acknowledged Geoff Lupton, director of energy, fleet and traffic, who said the majority of collisions come from garbage trucks and plows. “I wouldn’t say we’re unsafe; I’d say we’ve had too many incidents and we’re working to address that.”

Public works chair Coun. Sam Merulla called the city’s record “unacceptable,” but added he’s confident in the city’s new plan to tackle the troubling trend.

The plan started last fall when the city formed a committee to tackle the issue and now includes a revamp of Hamilton’s driver safety manual. Lupton said a driving trainer has been working with waste collectors since January and three yet-to-be hired trainers will soon be “embedded” in the roads department. Meetings with drivers are also being held at various public works yards.

Lupton also noted many city vehicle collisions are weather-related — for example, plows clipping cars in storms, or garbage trucks reversing in snow-choked side streets. “A lot of our (staff) are out there in the absolute worst conditions,” he said. “We’ll always have accidents, but we definitely need to make sure there are as few as possible.” (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Friday February 13, 2015

February 12, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday February 13, 2015

City passes budget that leaves little room for road repairs

Council has approved $261 million in capital spending for the year — but you have one last shot to grab a share of the asphalt.

Wednesday September 17, 2014 Last-minute budget juggling means city councillors have $3 million — that’s $200,000 each — to spend fixing residential streets in each ward.

So if your street is more pothole than pavement, now’s the time to complain to your councillor.

“Compared to the overall roads budget it’s a drop in the bucket, but every little bit helps,” said Coun. Chad Collins, who added his own Ward 5 residents complained loudly about the state of local roads even before one city official warned some streets were in danger of going “down to gravel.”

The city’s capital budget is all about building, replacing and repairing — think arterial roads, bridges, buses, rec centres and affordable housing.

As usual, the lion’s share — $99 million, or about 40 per cent — will be spent on roads and bridges. But that still leaves us $120 million behind what we should be spending on needed repairs.

Council hasn’t approved a final tax levy yet, but about $44 million of the capital budget comes from taxes you pay this year. The rest of the capital cash comes from reserves, government grants, leftover project funding, development charges and debt financing.

In an effort to chip away at the infrastructure deficit, council also approved a half-percent increase to the tax levy dedicated to capital. The extra money, about $3.7 million, equates to another $15 on the average homeowner’s tax bill.

Council also approved $5 million for the capital budget Wednesday that may not be spent in 2015 — or ever. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Thursday January 15, 2015

January 14, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 15, 2015

Two city workers fired over pot-brownies

The city has fired two employees fingered for bringing pot brownies to a public works yard and sharing them with an unknowing co-worker.

The city initially suspended two male workers suspecting of bringing the banned baked goods to the Stoney Creek yard Dec. 22.

The brownies prompted an “adverse reaction” in a 20-year-old worker who was rushed to hospital, but has since recovered and returned to work.

Hamilton police investigated but determined there wasn’t enough evidence to lay charges. But Wednesday, city officials announced they’ve wrapped up an internal probe and fired the unidentified public works employee.

An update to council from public works had Gerry Davis said the pair were fired because of “possession an/or use of illegal drugs on city property.”

Generally, it takes longer to get high from eating cannabis-infused foods compared to smoking marijuana, but the effects can last longer. Symptoms of overdose in either case can include anxiety and panic attacks, disorientation or delusions.

“We are taking this matter very seriously,” Davis said previously, and contacted all city councillors to assure them an “internal investigation” was underway after The Spectator asked about the incident.

The banned baked goods were not reported to the provincial Ministry of Labour, but Hamilton police investigated and decided there was “insufficient evidence” to lay charges, said spokesperson Const. Claus Wagner. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Friday, December 20, 2013

December 20, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, December 20, 2013

Hamilton gets $23M from Ottawa for sewage treatment

Hamilton has been promised $23 million in federal money for a new facility to treat sewage sludge, but the city has no idea right now what that facility will be or what technology it will use to deal with the sludge.

Ottawa has promised the city up to $22.91 million to build a new waste treatment facility at the city’s Woodward Avenue treatment plant.

The facility would deal with “biosolids” — the roughly 100 tons of sewage the city creates every day. Currently, a treated version of the sludge is spread on local farm fields.

Putrified Organics Of Hamilton

It isn’t a sexy subject to talk about, said Dan McKinnon, the city’s director of water. But “this is really important.”

When combined with planned upgrades to the Woodward facility, “we’ve got plans in place now, and projects that are going to have a real legacy influence on the environment around Hamilton.”

David Sweet, MP for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale, announced the money at city hall on Wednesday. It comes from the P3 Canada Fund for public-private partnerships.

The city still doesn’t know what form the new facility will take. It could be for incineration, pyrolysis or another technology, McKinnon said. The city issued a preliminary call for interest last year and got 17 responses. It will put out a request for proposals next year.

Whatever operator the city chooses, the P3 money will pay for 25 per cent of the cost of building the facility. The city will pay for the other 75 per cent, plus the cost of operating the facility for the next 30 years. The maximum budget is around $111 million over 30 years, McKinnon said. (Source: CBC News)

REACTION

Letter to the Editor-in-Chief

Paul,

As a follow up to our telephone call last Friday, I’m writing to express concern on behalf of ArcelorMittal Dofasco regarding that day’s editorial page cartoon by Graham Mackay (Friday December 20, 2013).

As you know, the two trademarked tag lines “Our strength is people.” and “Our product is steel. Our strength is people.” have been in use by our company for decades (44 years to be exact). The Hamilton Spectator’s usage of the trademark and adaptation of the full tagline in this morning’s newspaper is offensive to ArcelorMittal Dofasco and we feel this use negatively impacts our company’s goodwill and integrity in the community. Without careful review of the entire page’s content, the cartoon’s text is a direct reference to ArcelorMittal Dofasco and its product. In fact, the cartoon has caused upset among some of our employees who feel the use of our longstanding tagline is inappropriate and offensive.

We trust ArcelorMittal Dofasco will not be represented in this way again in The Hamilton Spectator.

Marie

Marie Verdun| Manager, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs
ArcelorMittal Dofasco

Thursday April 19, 2012

April 19, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday April 19, 2012

Burlington lift bridge raised for Hamilton-bound ships

The Burlington Canal Lift Bridge has been raised to allow freighters to get in and out of Hamilton Harbour.

Department of Public Works spokesperson Jeremy Link said Wednesday the bridge – which was stuck partway up after a cable broke Tuesday morning – was inched upwards during overnight to open harbour access.

The bridge is still closed to road traffic.

Engineers are still assessing the problem and the repair and no date has been set for re-opening the bridge.

Ships were beginning to stack up outside Hamilton Harbour before the bridge was raised. Two arrived after the bridge stuck Tuesday morning and three more are expected Wednesday.

The Hamilton Street Railway has set up detour routes around the bridge for routes which use Beach Boulevard.

The two freighters — a tanker and a cargo ship — were anchored in Lake Ontario off Burlington’s waterfront and not far from the canal as engineers investigated the possibility of safely lifting the bridge completely so the ships can pass.

The movable bridge’s opening sections became stuck partway up at 25 metres at 9:40 a.m. Tuesday after a cable broke and stopped the bridge from opening further. Ships could not pass, nor could road and pedestrian traffic use the bridge.

The lift bridge yearly allows about 6,500 ships, including about 700 cargo carrying ships, to pass through the canal and into Hamilton Harbour. An average 10,000 vehicles pass over it each day according to 2009 statistics. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)