Westford Ward councillor Kristen Oliver sums up 2020 with one word: pivot.
In her opinion it’s what many in municipal politics have had to do to adjust to what has been a tough year.
Before the focus became slowly on the coronavirus pandemic, Oliver wanted to see further work done on skating through Vickers Park.
“There are water pipes [underneath] that support the building on the property, [the question became] how do we insulate that to ensure that those pipes don’t crack,” says Oliver “There are those that don’t want to skate but would rather walk or walk their pets through the park, and so we wanted to ensure that that section of the population had the opportunity to continue to do that as a form of exercise. What administration has done is come back with a plan to utilize half of the circle through Vickers Park for skating and the other half for walking. The section of the round part closest to Brunswick Street South will be open for skating in 2021.”
The Westfort Councillor also notes speeding and traffic enforcement are issues that her constituents kept bringing up in 2020.
“In Westfort we have really long walks between stop signs so we see quite a bit of speeding in these residential areas. I’ve worked with engineering to see if we can come up with some ways of doing traffic calming measures, but we’re limited in what we can do in residential areas,” adds Oliver. “I don’t know how we fix the issue, other than hitting you in the pocket book… If you have to start paying fines you’re likely going to change your behaviour.”
