Vote for our town!

A few of us attended the Televised presentation by Public Access TV of candidates for County Board the other night. This program will be shown soon on PAC TV.

Four pairs of two candidates, each running in opposition to the other, took questions from the audience regarding their qualifications for the job and their views on town issues. Not surprisingly nearly an hour of the 90 minute show was devoted to issues concerning the building of the jail.

The candidates were equally split in their views on the jail. Each of districts 13,19,22 and 26 had one candidate who was "pro jail on the waterfront" and one who was definitely for saving our waterfront from having a huge, expanding jail on it.

The individuals who expressed their support of the waterfront and historic district and are in favour of placing the jail outside of town are:

District 13 - Eric Zeeger,
District 19 - John Prince,
District 22 - Ken Fulgione,
District 26 - Tami Schraufnagel,
District 28 - Ted Barr.

I felt that all four candidates spoke very well defending their positions on the jail this evening and most importantly, expressed their concern for wanting to hear from the public they are running to represent. It was brought up that the public has often, especially of late, felt completely disenfranchised where county issues are concerned. The issue was raised about the lack of will many incumbents seem to have had in holding a referendum for the much debated jail issue, leading their constituents to feel marginalized.

The only incumbent among the four was Tami Schraufnagel whom I very much hope will be voted in again, along with the other three. The reason it is so very important that we get all four of them in to office in this election is that this would give us the much needed majority on the county board to possibly overturn the plans for the current jail site in the Historic Randall Park Neighbourhood, on the water front.

If you live in any of these districts please speak to your friends and neighbours about these fine candidates, and by all means get out and vote on April 1st, or vote by absentee ballot before then if you want to make sure to get your vote in. I believe that the ballots are already at City Hall. Every single vote is extremely important. Individuals in the past have won on margins as small as 3 to 8 votes. You could be the one person who tips it in a direction that will save our town.

The future of the quality of life in our city is truly at stake. Thank you for all you do.

an email from Emily