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Long time senior manager resigns city post

One of Windsor city hall’s key administrators, after a long career with the city, has resigned her position.

Diane Bertolin resigned Friday afternoon. No reasons were provided to staff.

“We found out about three in the afternoon” that day, Michael Chantler, director of business administration in the licensing department and who answered to Bertolin, said.

“It was a complete surprise to me.”

Bertolin had been employed with the city 19 years, 14 in licensing.

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Candidate to take legal action against city

The man who was ousted as chair of Windsor’s crime prevention committee says he’ll be taking legal action against the city.

John Middleton, who’s running in this year’s municipal election as a candidate in Ward 5, says he will make details known in “two weeks - max.”

“There will be clear action when the news release comes out,” he said.

Asked if the legal action might relate to character defamation, he replied, “That’s correct.”

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A shocker: natural gas bills to decline $500

The average family in Windsor and Essex County will see their natural gas bills decline by about $500 this year.

Customers who opened their Union Gas bills over the past month may have been shocked to see the drop in their bills. In fact they’re paying one-third now what they were paying a year ago.

The price of gas “declined fairly significantly in 2009,” Union Gas spokeswoman Andrea Stass said. Prices, she said, “are at their lowest level in about 10 years.”

A major reason is the discovery of plentiful gas in shale deposits in western North America.

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A'burg proposes first county farm market

WindsorOntarioNews.com Jan 29, 2010

The first Essex County farmers’ market could be built in Amherstburg if the town is successful in securing more than $500,000 in federal stimulus money for a project at a site on County Rd. 20 at the end of Walker Rd.

If successful the open air market, which would have a canopy, restrooms, parking, and which would be landscaped, could be open for business in 2011.

The location is at the site of the Malden Community and Cultural Centre, also known as the “little white church” because it was once a Roman Catholic chapel.

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Detroit? No, just Windsor's near east side

WindsorOntarioNews.com Jan 26, 2010

There’s a little bit of Detroit on Windsor’s near east side.

Vacant lots, boarded up buildings, houses with disintegrating roofs, the blocks between Aylmer and Louis Avenues with Chatham St. E. running in between, look like they could be a stand in for the worst parts of the Motor City.

The blocks have been allowed to deteriorate by absentee landowners and, according to one long time resident, an uncaring city hall that does nothing to clean up the mess.

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American non-union company protested

The local Labourers Union will be making its voice heard against any attempt to hire a non-union American company to do work on the $60 million Windsor Retention Treatment Basin (RTB) along the riverfront.

The city has shortlisted four companies that have expertise in tunnelling work connected to the football field size project (photo shows site), being built mostly with federal stimulus money.

The basin is designed to prevent the spillage of untreated sewer water into the Detroit River from the city’s aged combined sewage and storm water pipes.

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Activist says new border route has no sound environment, economic purpose

The director of the Sierra Club’s Ontario chapter Dan McDermott says the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) should not go ahead because it is an affront to the Windsor Detroit ecosystem and is questionable in light of global warming and diminishing use of carbon-based fuels.

“I’m not going to suggest for a moment that infrastructure spending is a bad thing,” he said. “I am going to suggest, however, that infrastructure spending to no purpose, that is environmentally destructive, is a bad thing and I would say that DRIC fits that definition in spades.”

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Mayoral candidate Sam Sinjari will "take action" to turn city around

Windsor mayoral candidate Sam Sinjari, 20 years old, believes he has what it takes to be the mayor of Windsor.

“I’m going to take action,” he says, should he be elected to the city’s top post in this October’s municipal election.

“There’s a lot of potential in this city and there‘s a lot of things that we can do to wake this town up.”

Sinjari is a third year political science student at the University of Windsor. He also sells used cars and has his own car sales web site.

Sinjari believes the current leadership of the city is moving too slowly to bring new investment to Windsor.

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"Windsor" scam artists target Ohio victims

Windsor‘s border location makes the city an easy target for scam artists who illegally seek to have Americans wire money to fake lawyers or family members.

According to Windsor Police the scam has been going on for years.

The way it works is that someone poses as a lawyer or a family member of an elderly person – usually a woman - living in an American city. The most recent case has been Toledo Ohio.

The caller phones the elderly person in Toledo, identifies himself as a grandchild, and says he has been arrested in Windsor and needs money to be released and return home while awaiting trial.

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Lise Lacasse returns for opening night screening of movie Youth in Revolt

Roles in more upcoming films

WindsorOntarioNews.com, Jan 7, 2010

Tecumseh’s Lise Lacasse is coming home Friday night when she’ll be at the second performance of Lakeshore Cinemas’ screening of the movie Youth in Revolt.

The Michigan-made film stars Michael Cera, Ray Liotta and Steve Buscemi. And Lacasse, who now lives in Michigan, has scenes as the “Matron” playing opposite Cera.

Lacasse has resided in suburban Detroit since the early Nineties.

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Local 211 call centre to serve all southwestern Ontario

The City of Windsor will soon be operating the 211 non-emergency call service for all of southwestern Ontario.

In fact the city hall department which oversees 211 began work on the expansion immediately after city council gave its okay in mid-December, with staff getting down to work after the New Year’s break.

“Today is actually the first day,” Tom Malenfant, the city’s manager of customer service said. “We’ve got staff who will be put into place in terms of expansion planning.”

Areas the Windsor-Essex call centre will cover outside our region will be Chatham-Kent, Lambton, Middlesex, Elgin and Oxford counties.

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In the dark: "hundreds" of Windsor blocks without streetlights

Drive the long block along Roseland Dr. E. between Dougall Ave. and the Roseland golf course and you might notice something a little peculiar – the absence of street lights.

This block – which extends as far south as Roseland Dr. S. – not only has no night illumination but it doesn’t have sidewalks either. The neighbourhood is otherwise well kept and solidly middle class with homes dating back to the 1950s.

Roseland E. is far from the only street without lights and sidewalks. Other blocks in the area don’t have them or have fewer than what normally might be expected in a residential area.

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Unique lamp posts designed for Windsor

These lights were designed for Windsor. Those futuristic-looking streetlights that first showed up more than a decade ago are now more in evidence along downtown streets.

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Toyota yanks scenes of Windsor Jaycees' Canadian unity flag

WindsorOntarioNews.com Dec 21, 2009

Images of that giant Windsor Jaycees Canadian flag have hit the cutting room floor. The flag, made famous when it became the symbol of the last-minute Canadian unity rally in Montreal just before the 1995 Quebec referendum and which possibly played a role in saving the country – has been lopped from a Toyota advertising campaign in Quebec.

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City Hall: good pay if you can get it

A group of city hall management employees is seeking to get the same status as a union and wants to negotiate a first contract with the city. This week they overwhelmingly voted down a city offer because it didn’t match provisions of non-management staff represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

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Customs eyeing bridge plaza for expansion

WindsorOntarioNews.com Dec 15, 2009

While owners of property in Windsor’s west end continue to feud with the city about the fate of dozens of boarded up houses along several blocks near the Ambassador Bridge one of the reasons cited for a prohibition on the homes’ demolition has a definite basis in fact.

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Artists launch sticker campaign against Mayor Francis

A group of artists has launched a campaign against Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis. The group, which apparently doesn’t want to be identified and seems to be working “underground” has been placing stickers around the city criticizing the mayor.

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New charge coming to cable bills in January

WindsorOntarioNews.com Dec 9, 2009

Local cable TV subscribers will see a new charge on their January bills. It’s the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) charge and amounts to 1.5 per cent plus tax.

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Essex County towns hooking-up smart water meters

Several Essex County communities are on the leading tech edge when it comes to what used to be the simple water meter. Amherstburg, for example, has been rolling out its Sensus electronic water meters this fall.

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U.S. group chooses Windsor for coats for kids distribution

In an unprecedented move the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council in the United States will be giving away hundreds of brand new coats for elementary school students Monday in Windsor at the Unemployed Help Centre.

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BIA decries Ouellette Ave improvements as "sea of gray"

The City of Windsor spent almost $5 million on new streetscaping downtown. But members of the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association, which kicked in more than $1 million of the cost, aren’t happy at all about it.

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Citizens group has eyes on DRIC Customs plaza

The group that is challenging a big box retail development along Matchette Rd. in west Windsor also has its eyes on the environmental impact of the Detroit River International Crossing’s (DRIC) massive Customs plaza in Brighton Beach near the Detroit River.

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Council activist says tunnel proposal "dubious, stupid"

WindsorOntarioNews.com Nov 26, 2009

Who is Bruce McLeod and why did he make a complaint to Windsor’s Integrity Commissioner about a meeting Mayor Eddie Francis had with now convicted Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick two summers ago?

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Paul Martin part of Trust to revamp Assumption Church

WindsorOntarioNews.com Nov 24, 2009

Former Prime Minister Paul Martin and well-known Canadian author Richard Rohmer have been enlisted to serve on a national campaign to seek funding as part of a major plan to renovate Assumption Church and surroundings.

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Electronic bingo hall opening in Windsor

Windsor’s first E-bingo hall will be opening later this month with a grand opening planned for early December.

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City could be on hook for up to $85 million

WindsorOntarioNews.com Nov 18, 2009

The City of Windsor could be on the hook for as much as $85 million should a class action lawsuit challenging it over the legality of bingo fees be successful.

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Ranta Marina protesters "self-interested" group

One of the Amherstburg town councillors who voted to sell the municipally-owned Ranta Marina is not fazed at all by vocal opposition to the conditional sale to developer Rob Delicata.

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Transit looking at cheaper passes, open transfers

Transit Windsor is considering major changes to its fare system, including the introduction of inexpensive daily family passes and transfers that would allow passengers to return in the direction they came from without paying another fare.

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Law says child driver should have been supervised

There are restrictions for children under 12 using dirt bikes, including where they can drive them and the kind of supervision they must be under.

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Clinton cut fees for environmental fundraiser

Bill Clinton may charge well over $100,000 for speaking engagements but he cut his price substantially to be guest speaker at a gala fundraiser next spring by the Essex Region Conservation Foundation.

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Windsor could gain sizable revenue from Parkway properties

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Poor economy leads condo owner to advertise nationally

Windsor Ontario News November 2, 2009

A Windsor man thinks the local market for a luxury riverfront condominium is so poor that he has spent considerable money to buy display advertising in one of Canada’s national newspapers to advertise the property.

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Bridge uses billboards to take campaign to public

The Ambassador Bridge company has taken its appeal for a new bridge span directly to the public.

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Canada Post won't deliver along construction route

Amherstburg residents this week received hand delivered letters from the town’s public works department informing them that the post office will not have letter carriers deliver mail along the stretch of road that is being torn up and replaced as part of a municipal beautification project.

Tecumseh park plan has lake pier, ecological gardens

Windsor Ontario News October 27, 2009

Tecumseh’s new waterfront park, now largely an open space with limited amenities, is expected to undergo a major transformation under plans being drawn up by the town’s engineering consultants, Toronto’s EDA Collaborative Inc.

New signs coming to Highway 401

Windsor Ontario News October 23, 2009

Expect newer and better signs along Highway 401 in the near future to alert motorists to the fact that service centre sites are still open.

Tecumseh says MPAC office will be on transit route

Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara says there will indeed be public transit service to the new Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) office when it opens in Tecumseh likely in late January.

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