Breslau now home to farmers’ market

Residents of Breslau looking for fresh, local produce won’t have to look much further than their own backyard to get it. On Monday night, the first local food market was held at the Breslau Community Centre and although the turnout was sparse, organizers hope to see it grow in the coming months. “We thought we might have been going last summer,” laughed Carolyn Snider, who along with Grace Sudden has organized the market, which ran from 5-7 p.m. in the community centre’s kitchen. “It gives us a chance to get going now in the winter on a small basis, because you don’t want to suddenly start up so large that you’re totally overwhelmed.”

For the winter months the market will only run every two to three weeks, but they hope that by the time spring and summer rolls around they’ll have enough interest and enough vendors to run every Friday evening.
“It’s not going to be a morning market or even a noon market; the idea is to catch people after work and before the weekend so you can come and pick up your supply.”

Thus far the pair has only secured one vendor, Bailey’s Local Foods out of Waterloo, but they are optimistic that once word spreads the market will become very popular in their community. Snider noted the enormous expansion in Breslau in the past few years and the growth in the number of young families as well for one of the reasons why she thought the time was right for the market.

“It’s all subdivisions around here, huge subdivisions,” said Snider. “All these people here and there isn’t even a grocery store in Breslau.”

Snider and Sudden have been working with Woolwich Township to try and get the market off the ground, and are certainly open to having more vendors come and sell their goods, including local artists or crafters. Snider said the township has agreed to make this first year free for any interested vendors to register and come sell their produce.

The one vendor they have secured epitomizes the local food movement Snider and Sudden are trying to promote. Bailey’s Local Foods has committed their business to within 100 miles of Waterloo Region, sourcing and only making available food that is in season.

Right now the list of available produce is limited to mostly stored root crops such as potatoes, leeks, carrots and onions, but some of their farmers do grow produce in greenhouses around the region.

That may leave customers at the whim of Mother Nature in terms of the produce that is available, but it also means the food is fresher and tastes better, and helps people realize just where our food comes from, said Bailey’s co-owner Maryrose Ivanco.

“This year when the cherries were to be pollinated and the bees were to be out it was raining, so we only had one week of cherries,” she noted.

“In a grocery store you don’t know where your produce came from, and you sure as heck don’t know when it was picked. In the spring, most of our produce has been picked that morning or the day before.”

Prices are a little bit higher than customers can expect to pay in the grocery store, and if local farmers tried to compete with the prices of food trucked and flown from California to our grocery stores, they would go bankrupt, Ivanco noted.

Customers wishing to participate in the market can go online to baileyslocalfoods.ca to place their order, and then pick up their order at the Breslau Community Centre during the designated pickup days, which will be Feb. 13, Mar. 5, Apr. 2 and 23, and May 14.

For more information on the market or to become a vendor, contact Snider at glennandcarolyn@hotmail.com.

Harris lets kids be MPP for a Day

Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Michael Harris has introduced a new youth initiative that he hopes will help reinvigorate interest in politics and civic engagement. Unveiled last Saturday at his New Year’s levee in St. Jacobs, MPP For a Day intends to bring some 16 students per year to Queen’s Park in Toronto to see just how the provincial government works and what some of the MPP’s responsibilities are as an elected representative.
“It’s going to promote youth leadership, give them the opportunity to participate in discussions made by our community members, and really get them engaged,” said Harris.

“I think there is really no better way than to reach out and give them the opportunity of experiencing what an elected official’s role is, and give them a real hands-on life experience.”

MPP for a Day will run from February to June and September to November. Each month, one successful Grade 6 or 7 student and one Grade 8, 9 or 10 student will go to Queen’s Park and be introduced in the legislature, attend Question Period, meet legislators, tour the legislative buildings and spend time with Harris. At the end of the day, participants will receive a certificate designating them honourary MPP for Kitchener-Conestoga.

To apply for the program, interested students must complete an application form available online, which includes several questions about Ontario’s political system and a 100-word short-answer response detailing why they would make a good MPP for a day. Students in Grades 8 to 10 are asked to provide an additional response explaining one thing they would like to change in the province.

Details such as permission slips from parents or organizing a parental chaperone still need to be arranged, but those should be ironed out in the coming weeks.

Harris said he made a commitment to engaging local youth in their community during the election last fall; this program will help achieve that. He cited growing concerns of a population that has become disinterested in the political process and hopes that this program can help reverse that trend. A record-low 49.2 per cent of all eligible voters cast a ballot in last fall’s election, and only 37.4 per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 24 cast a ballot in the 2008 federal election.

“There seems to be a real gap in youth involvement, and I think this is a way to engage the leaders of tomorrow.”

For more information, go online to www.michaelharrismpp.ca to download a copy of the questionnaire, or visit the constituency office at 1187 Fischer-Hallman Road, suite 264 in Kitchener.

Wellesley clears way for cell tower in St. Clements

A proposed Rogers telecommunications tower near the village of St. Clements received clearance this week from Wellesley council, giving the company the green light to proceed with construction.
Councillors passed a  statement of concurrence acknowledging that Rogers undertook all necessary steps to mitigate the public concerns and resolve the relevant and non-relevant issues surrounding this particular tower.
The 45-metre tower, which is to be built at 4074 Hessen Strasse, drew the ire of nearby citizens last fall, prompting them to appear in front of councillors in October to request support in opposing to the project. They also presented a petition bearing the signature of 39 residents allied against the proposal.

They challenged the necessity of the tower and questioned why it was being built so close to a residential area. They also cited health concerns and property devaluation among their worries, but councillors elected to defer their decision until the public consultation period closed on Nov. 15.

Since the tower is not slated to be built on a residentially-zoned piece of property, there was no consultation required under Industry Canada guidelines, but Rogers chose to proceed with the consultation process anyway.
“I deliberately held Rogers to the higher standard of Industry Canada’s public consultation procedures which require full consultation, and I have taken this site through probably the most extensive public consultation that we have ever done on any site,” said Rogers’ site acquisition and municipal relations consultant Jeff McKay.

In documents provided to councillors, McKay demonstrated that Rogers had fully complied with its industry requirements, including informing all residents living within three-times the tower height of the site (135 metres) of the tower’s construction, publishing a notice in the newspaper, and responding to all concerns as they arose.

Rogers also showed that the current site was the most suitable for the area based on the number of residents impacted and the level of transmission coverage required. There were other proposed sites for the tower, but none met all the necessary criteria as well as the current site.

“This is simply a case of NIMBY [not in my backyard]; of course they are not opposed to moving it elsewhere,” said McKay of the citizens opposed to the tower in an email to chief administrative officer Susan Duke dated Nov. 15.

The township has no authority to dictate the location of the tower because all aspects relating to communication towers, from their engineering to their location, fall under the federal jurisdiction of Industry Canada.
Councillors debated at length about their decision, ultimately opting to concur rather than enter into a potentially lengthy – and expensive – impasse with Rogers. Should an impasse have occurred the issue would have been sent to Industry Canada, who would have examined all the documentation and likely ruled in favour of the telecommunications company anyway.

Robert Doerner, who lives just down the road from the proposed site, was at the meeting Tuesday night to voice his opposition to the tower based on his ongoing health concerns about long-term exposure to radiation from the tower.

“As we’ve seen in the past, issues with drugs and materials such as urea formaldehyde and asbestos, they have all gone from good and acceptable things to bad and unacceptable after a period of discovery has passed,” Doerner said.

“I do not want the radiation from this tower to impact our lives in a negative fashion.”

McKay countered those concerns by saying that under Safety Code 6, which covers the health effects of electromagnetic fields, Health Canada has determined these types of towers pose no threat to human health.
The telecommunications act also says that appealing the location of a radio tower based on health concerns are not reasonable grounds given the federal ruling within Safety Code 6.
“We have no responsibility for the legislation of Health Canada; our obligation is one of compliance,” he said.

“We have proven and certified that at the Doerner property the emissions from this facility will be in excess of 500 times below that which is considered a risk. Health is not an issue. These wouldn’t be built if health was an issue.”

While councillors seemed sympathetic to the concerns of the residents, they also acknowledged the futility of stalling the process any further.
“If we want to hold this up we’ll just end up spinning our wheels and it’ll cost us money down the road in legal fees,” said Coun. Herb Neher.
“We’re just turning good money into bad money for the sake of delaying something that’s going to happen anyway.”

Breslau residents push for traffic-calming on Woolwich Street

Growth in Breslau that has worsened longstanding safety concerns on Woolwich Street has residents calling for traffic-calming measures. Woolwich Street resident Jennifer Williams presented a petition signed by 30 of her neighbours to councillors Tuesday night, asking for the township to act. For its part, Woolwich plans to look at the situation, suggesting a formal traffic study would help planners decide the next steps.

This is not the first time residents have been out to council demanding action. Studies in 2005, 2006 and 2007 showed both traffic volumes and speeding to be an issue, with the council of the day ultimately deciding to reduce the speed limit on Woolwich Street to 40 km/h from 50. The township also put stop signs at the intersection of Dolman Street after considering the installation of three stop along the stretch of Woolwich Street running through the village.

Acknowledging past efforts, Williams argued this week that the problem was never fully solved. Now, with development in Breslau, especially the Riverland subdivision to the south, there’s more traffic and more speeding.
“The speed is dangerously fast,” she said, urging the installation of speed humps to slow traffic.

Asked by Mayor Todd Cowan if speed humps were the only solution, she replied “I don’t see any other way … than an obstacle so that they can’t speed.”

Attempting to nip in the bud protests about the use of the traffic-calming devices, she argued they only pose a possible damage threat to speeding vehicles, adding the same is true of noise complaints: cars travelling at the appropriate speed would have no problem.

“I am asking the township, in the face of possible opposition, to avoid a predictable tragedy and implement traffic-calming speed humps.”

Reminded by Coun. Mark Bauman that the township previously installed a temporary speed bump on Woolwich Street in 2006, director of engineering and planning Dan Kennaley said he would be looking at the information collected from previous studies.

Kennaley suggested using the township’s mobile speed trailer to measure traffic volumes and speeds along Woolwich Street, adding the caveat that the device can’t be used in winter as it interferes with snow-clearing and doesn’t work in cold winter temperatures. The study would have to wait until after May 1, subject to study locations already on the township’s list.

Cowan, however, suggested safety concerns should be the top priority rather than adding locations on a first-come, first-served basis.

Asked by Coun. Julie-Anne Herteis if possible solutions would go beyond speed humps, Kennaley said the study would cast a wider net.

“We’ll look at any and all traffic-calming measures that might be included.”

Looking at the big picture, Bauman noted the problem would also be addressed if the region would speed up completion of the Breslau bypass route, connecting Ebycrest Road with Fountain Street to channel more cars away from Woolwich Street.

Opened in the fall of 2004 at a cost of $1.6 million, the bypass – formally Reg. Rd. 17, or Fountain Street – was only slowly adopted by motorists. Five years ago, during the last studies of traffic as residents pushed for safety measures, almost three times as many drivers (7,000-9,000 a day) – used Woolwich Street versus 3,000 for Fountain Street.

EDSS set to present a touch of magic Friday night

There is magic in the air at Elmira District Secondary School. Drama teacher DJ Carroll has been teaching his Grade 11 students stage magic over the last few weeks and they’ve really taken to the challenge, performing tricks for their classmates in the hallways before, during and after school. For their final project, the students will be holding a show for the public to show off the tricks they’ve learned.

There will be two shows, the first on Friday night at 7 p.m. for friends and family and the second on Monday afternoon starting at 1:30 p.m. for local grade schools to attend.

“The show basically gives them a chance to show off what they have learned over the course of a few weeks,” said Carroll. “It gives them a chance to perform for two different audiences and see how different ages react to different tricks.”

The show will feature close-up magic tricks, like card or cup tricks that require audience participation: volunteers  will be brought up on stage to watch the magicians every move. The performance will also have some really big tricks that involve people disappearing and reappearing on the stage. A practicing magician before he became a teacher, Carroll thought it would be fun to incorporate magic into his lessons. The kids have been practicing for weeks perfecting not only their magical skills but the “magicians patter” that keep the audience involved.

“I tell the kids at the start of this unit that they will be learning how to do magic and they are under the oath not to reveal any of the secrets that I will tell them,” he said.

Carroll has already had four or five students take a real shine to the tricks and have progressed further on their own, taking up other tricks he did not teach them.

“Some of these kids are really good at doing this kind of stuff and I think it is fantastic that every year I am setting up a generation of kids that are actually interested in doing magic.”

To learn a trick it takes time and patience, he explained. Some, like the self-working tricks, take are few minutes to get the hang of, while others take days and weeks of practicing before the students have them perfected.

“The added bonus to any trick is putting your own personality into it, and these kids have come up with some great spots for the show,” said Carroll.

The show will feature each student performing various magic tricks and stunts with some students teaming up to perform group magic tricks.

“I really enjoy doing magic especially when you see the people’s faces after the reveal and they are so mystified by your trick. It is a real confidence booster and gives me pleasure to know that I have entertained someone,” said Karley Schaefer, one of Carroll’s students. “My friends are always asking me how did you do that, but I know the oath and will not give away any of the secrets.”

Mennonite writers the subject of Conrad Grebel series

Conrad Grebel University College is marking the first 50 years of Mennonite writing in Canada by hosting a nine-week reading and lecture series and playing host to some of the worlds top Mennonite authors and poets. The series kicked off Wednesday when world-renowned Canadian novelist Rudy Wiebe read some of his work and provided a retrospective view on his 57-year career.

Wiebe is largely credited with starting the Mennonite writing movement back in 1962 with the release of his novel “Peace Shall Destroy Man,” credited as the first Canadian Mennonite authored book published by a national publisher and widely available in English.

He has twice been awarded the Governor General’s Award for fiction, and in 2007 he won the Charles Taylor Prize for his memoir, “Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest.”

Wiebe was born in Saskatchewan in 1934 as part of the last generation of Mennonite homesteaders to settle the Canadian west. He did not even speak English until the age of six.
Other speakers in the series include Canadian novelist David Bergen on Feb. 29, who won the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2005 for “The Time in Between”, David Waltner-Toews on Jan. 18, an internationally known epidemiologist and a poet and novelist will talk about how science and a Mennonite upbringing inform his work, as well as Magdalene Redekop on Feb. 1, Rob Zacharias on Feb. 8, and Paul Tiessen on Mar. 14.

“This particular series is the first we’ve ever done of this magnitude,” said Hildi Froese Tiessen, a professor of literature at Conrad Grebel for the past 25 years and a scholar of Mennonite writing.

She acknowledged that Mennonite literature continues to be a minority form of writing to this day, and that there are only about 25 or 30 prominent writers in the world today, but also noted that it is gaining momentum which is demonstrated by the quality of writers taking part in the lecture series.

“The Mennonites effectively shunned creative writing for hundreds of years because it was seen as not truth-telling,” she said. “So it’s certainly significant for the Mennonite community to have this blossoming of literary figures.”

According to Tiessen, it was a confluence of several factors that led to the genre’s growth. Certainly the release of Wiebe’s book in 1962 started it all, but other events during that time period also contributed.

During the 1920s migration of Mennonites to Canada, and earlier migrations dating back to the 1870s, Mennonites began moving into the cities and eventually they become more comfortable with English and gaining an education.

By the 1960s those experiences, combined with the growing sense of multiculturalism in Canada and the post-Trudeau years which gave birth to a renewed sense of nationalism helped give rise to Mennonite writers and poets in the 1980s and 1990s.

“The writing of the earlier era was very much what I would call writing of diaspora, where we had people who in effect were bridging two cultures,” said Tiessen.
“Now they’re very much in the mainstream, writing about experiences that are most familiar to them but would have parallels throughout the country.”
The remaining eight weeks of the literature series run on Wednesday evenings in the college chapel of Conrad Grebel.
For more information and a complete list of the participating authors, visit www.grebel.uwaterloo.ca.

Artist’s Speckled Trout on display as a symbol of Woolwich

Elmira’s Sandra Bray has taken a different approach to making art. Putting down her pencils and paints, the artist has turned to found items to create her latest work using tin can lids as her medium.Working with members of the community during Canada Culture Days, Bray created a work of art that she felt best represented the community, a four-foot-long speckled trout sculpture.

The speckled trout, also known as the brook trout, was chosen as an icon of Woolwich Township because the habitat for trout is also a habitat where humans can thrive, said Bray.
“In our local watershed, we have lots of freshwater springs which keep the creeks and streams cool enough to suit the speckled trout. There are a lot of trout in the area and everyone knows about the fish, so I thought it would be more fun to create something that everyone was aware of.”

Bray had been collecting tin can lids for a while before the project started and likes working with the reclaimed metals. An environmentalist at heart, reusing materials to create art that can eventually be recycled itself suits her just fine.

“My initial motivation in artistic pursuits was to challenge my technical ability, to see what I could achieve with the medium that fascinated me at the moment,” she said adding she wanted everyone to be able to participate in the piece collaboratively and see what they would create.

Since the trout has small scales, she recruited some help in the form of Ron Cressman, Susan Gray, Susan Bryant, Annalise, Natasha and Katherine Walton, Trevor Lowry and Woolwich Mayor Todd Cowan, who hammered the small scale and fin patterns into the 221 lids before assembly began.

Cressman solved a construction problem by experimenting with pop rivets, which were eventually used to attach the lids to one another.  The group ran into some difficulties finding the colours they needed for the speckles and decided to use black pop rivets and black paint to signify the speckles.

Bray said the sculpture was a dry run for a larger project she is hoping to create next year with community help, based on the green darter fish that lives in the Canagagigue Creek.
“There were only about 10 of those fish in the creek not so long ago but it has flourished over the last few years and almost 400 live there now,” said Bray. “That is a real success story and I think we should be celebrating its return.”

The artist is going to need a lot more tin cans as she plans to build a 20- to 25-foot sculpture of the little fish. She is looking  for tin can lid donations, which can be dropped off at the Elmira library and the township office.

The Speckled Trout sculpture is currently on display at the Toronto Dominion Bank in downtown Elmira and will be moving to its permanent home, Woolwich’s administration building, later this year.

Heifer sale a major fundraiser for MCC

The 31st annual heifer sale sponsored by Ontario Mennonite Relief Sale Inc. will be taking place on Feb. 17 in Listowel to raise funds for the relief and development work of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). All the money raised on auction day goes directly to relief, development and peace work locally and in some 60 countries around the world.
MCC’s mission is to addresses the basic human need for water, food and shelter while working alongside churches and communities in a variety of efforts to build peace. Working within a community the MCC tries to build bridges to connect people and ideas across cultural, political and economic divides.

Plans are well underway for this year’s auction and the organizing committee is currently seeking donations from local farmers and agribusinesses who donate heifers, sale facilities, trucks, staff, feed, straw, veterinary and auction services.

“After 30 years of raising funds for the MCC, volunteers for the heifer sale are still going strong,” said Clarence Diefenbacher, sale chairperson.
The sale relies heavily on volunteers to make it a success year after year.

“People tend to gravitate to our cause because they know that our organization does some very good work at home and abroad,” said Diefenbacher. “This is an excellent opportunity for farmers and agribusinesses to support MCC programs.”

Last year the auction sold 117 heifers, several lots of semen, bales of straw, and other miscellaneous items. The heifers sold for $150,250 averaging $1,284 a head. The total proceeds including additional cash donations brought the sale total to over $166,000. Since its inception in 1982 the heifer sale has raised well over $4 million through the auctioning of 3,500 heifers.

More than 400 farmers, buyers and businesses attended last years auction in support of the relief work.
Topping the sale last year at $5,000 were two heifers: Quality Minister and Hanalee Shottle Dawn donated by Irvin and Ellen Jantzi, and the Mennonite Savings and Credit Union.
“We have farmers that donate year after year, without question. It’s a good feeling when you ask for one heifer, and someone offers two instead. Stuff like that motivates you to keep doing it,” said John Brenneman, secretary of the heifer sale committee.

This year’s sale will take place at Carson Auction facilities, 5531 Perth Line 86, Listowel on Feb. 27, starting at 11 a.m.
For more information about the sale, to donate a heifer, or to make cash donations visit www.heifersale.org.

Woolwich finds efficiencies in budget, but no real cuts coming

A mixture of cuts and fee hikes helped Woolwich staff find the five per cent in efficiencies requested by councillors, but taxpayers shouldn’t expect a break this year.
Some $400,000 – much of it the result of new fees, including an expected increase in parking tickets –will go into general revenues, to augment a planned 2.5-per-cent tax hike for 2012. Residents may also be digging even deeper into their pockets if council approves an additional levy to pay for infrastructure projects – no figures have been discussed at this point, but the further tax hike will be on the table during deliberations this month.

As a result, there will be no austerity measures at town hall, despite the lingering malaise in the economy, including rising unemployment. Instead, the township plans to increase spending on wages and salaries – the biggest part of its operating budget – including hiring a new engineering technician ($55,000-$66,000 a year) and expanding some part-time jobs to full-time.

The six-digit increase in salaries more than offsets planned decreases in staff hours at the Woolwich Memorial Centre as the recreation and facilities department looks to bring its budget under control.

The combination of cuts and fee increases in the rec. department amounting to $177,000 leads the way in some $395,000 in efficiencies identified by staff as councillors this week discussed the 2012 budget.

New director of recreation and facilities Karen Makela expects reduction in staffing levels and hours of work to pay big dividends this year, countering recent budget-overruns in the department. Eliminating staff from the fitness centre during the day, Mondays through Fridays, will save $41,000, while reducing aquatic staff hours adds $47,000 to the bottom-line. A further $16,000 is forecast due to cuts to arena maintenance staff.

Engineering and planning services is the second-largest contributor at $171,600, largely the result of plans to reduce works projects by at least $88,000 by going to tender earlier in the year in order to get lower bids from construction companies.

Department director Dan Kennaley said making a push to get the engineering portion of the projects done upfront would allow the tendering process to take place when contractors are “hungry for work,” estimating the savings at three per cent.

In other measures, shifting the installation of water meters to builders rather than keeping it a township responsibility will save some $20,700 a year, while raising fees and charges is expected to bring in an additional $29,000 in 2012.

The rest of the budget efficiencies identified by staff amount to much smaller amounts in other departments, including a plan to see bylaw enforcement officers work more evening and weekend hours, bringing in perhaps another $2,500 in parking ticket revenue.

A great reliance on technology, including electronic billing, is also in the works.

“We want to make sure we get the best value for our customers,” said director of finance Richard Petherick.

No austerity in Woolwich’s 2012 budget

Positioning the township for growth trumps austerity, says Woolwich’s mayor. “If we want to be a township that’s moving forward, then let’s move forward,” said Todd Cowan, following an introductory budget meeting Tuesday night that includes no significant cuts, plans for a tax hike and perhaps a new tax levy to help fund infrastructure projects.
The mayor also skirted around wage freezes for government staff, as called for by Premier Dalton McGuinty, saying upcoming union negotiations will be handled by chief administrative officer David Brenneman – “we as council don’t want to micromanage that issue.”

Given new development, forecasted population growth and public demand for programs and facilities, now is not the time to make cuts that would reduce service levels, he argued.
New development in Elmira, St. Jacobs and Breslau will require more time from planning and engineering staff up front – the department is planning to hire another employee as well as draw on more outside consultants – and ultimately create a greater demand for services.

While there are no cuts and tax relief in the works, Cowan said the township is making better use of tax dollars than was the case previously.
“People weren’t feeling they were getting value for the dollar. I think they’re starting to get value now with things running more efficiently.”
On top of growth, the township also faces rising costs of its own, he added, noting new provincial regulations continually add to expenses without any corresponding money. Many of the costs come with no benefit to taxpayers, who foot the bill nonetheless.

The province is essentially downloading by another name, Brenneman told councillors meeting Jan. 10 to discuss department business plans, a prelude to 2012 budget deliberations. That includes such things as excessive water monitoring, fire department guidelines and paperwork and accessibility legislation

The same more-cost-for-no-benefit scenario applies to the fire department, where the township is “spending more and more money” with little in return, Cowan said Tuesday night.
For township fire chief Rick Pedersen, a long list of new regulations have created more paperwork and higher costs. Over the years, he explained, the department has taken on responsibility for mandatory emergency planning measures, for instance. Increased communication requirements and new standards for training – more of it, more often – have also driven up costs. New standards for fire trucks have meant higher prices when replacing vehicles, and on and on it goes.

With so many pressures, including mandatory costs, there’s no way to make real cuts to the budget without service reductions, said Cowan, noting residents are looking for more, not less.

In pre-budget consultations, he heard calls for a skateboard park in Elmira, upgrades to the township website to make it more user friendly, support for an accessible playground – the Kate’s Kause project – but not much call for cuts beyond reining in spending at the Woolwich Memorial Centre: “We have to keep on target with our costs.”
A business plan tabled this week by Karen Makela, the township’s new director of recreation and facilities, includes a reduction in staffing and work hours at the WMC. Overall, however, forecasts are for greater spending on wages and salaries across most departments. Cowan said he has no plans to push for cutbacks or freezes in the single-largest expense item in the operating budget.

“We feel we’re doing what we were elected to do: we’re delivering change and growth.”