Brian Junkin has been declared the winner of the by-election held on January 25th. Brian defeated Gail Thomassen and Audry Holden. The race was relatively close, with Brian receiving 731 votes and Thomassen finishing with 663 votes. Holden received 277 votes.

Congratulations to Brian. We look forward to working with him in the future.

The third set of Public Information Centres (PICs) will be held in Lindsay on Wed., January 27th, and on Coboconk on Thur., January 28th. Both meetings start at 7:00 p.m. Note that there will be an open house on both days before the meetings, starting at 4:00 p.m. These meetings represent the public consultation component of the plan development. If you’re interested and able to attend, this is your opportunity. For details on the locations and the backgound, read the official notice by clicking here.

A new Monopoly Canada edition is being prepared, and the City of Kawartha Lakes has been selected as one of 65 cities across the country that are eligible to be included on the board. There’s only room for 20 cities on the Monopoly board, so the publisher is conducting an online vote competition. The winner gets the Boardwalk position, while the next top 19 vote getters will win positions at lower value properties on the board. You can vote once a day until February 7th at www.monopolyvote.ca.

Don’t be thinking that this is a long shot. So far we’re doing pretty well; the CoKL is in 7th place as of today. Log in, register, and place your vote every day. Tell your friends and family. Vote once. Vote often.

For those of you who missed it, a debate between the three Ward 7 by-election candidates was held at the Bobcaygeon Legion last Thursday, January 7. Two of our local publications attended and have reported on the event. The articles are relatively short in length and depth, so they don’t provide a great deal of information that might help sway those of you who remain undecided. You can read the articles yourself by clicking on the following links:

Lindsay Post article

MyKawartha.com article

Don’t forget, you can contact the candidates directly if you’d like to ask them any questions. Their contact information is posted on the By-Election page.

Ballot kits for the Ward 7 By-Election have been mailed and should have arrived at your residence by now. If you have not received your ballot kit, you may not be on the voters list. If you didn’t receive your ballot kit, you can call Judy Currins, the City’s Returning Officer, at 705-324-9411 Ext. 1295 to try to correct any problems that they might have reaching you. To cast your vote, ballots should be filled out and back in the mail by January 20th. Alternatively, ballots can be hand delivered up until 8:00 p.m. on January 25 at the Bobcaygeon Municipal Service Centre. Please check out our By-Election page for more information.

The latest version of the Draft Official Plan is available on the CoKL’s website for review. You can get to the page by clicking here. In addition to the main document, you’ll find supporting “schedules” that provide detailed information, including many maps. The Plan includes a short section on “Special Policies for Sturgeon Point” (section 19.8, page 68). 

 The Official Plan will be legally adopted by the CoKL early in 2010 and establishes the city’s policies for development and land use for many years to come. The Official Plan development process is an open and transparent one (one hopes, anyways), and is subject to public input. There have been several hearings to accomodate this process and there will be at least one more, probably in January.

Anyone with an interest in the City’s affairs and how they might affect Sturgeon Point, including issues such as land zoning policies and the designation of  lands as environmentally sensitive or not, and many other related issues, would be strongly advised to take a look at the plan and attend the meetings.

A short article about the recent events in this process was published in the Lindsay Post in November. You can read it here. Updates on any further public hearings will be posted here as soon as they are announced by the CoKL.