Good evening everybody and welcome to the public works committee meeting for May 27th, 2026. As we begin, we'll start with the land acknowledgement. Grimby is situated on treaty land. This land is steeped in the rich history of the first nations s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s such as the hardawand the hnesoni and the anesnab including the missagas of the credit first nation. There are many first nation matei and inuit people from across turtle island that live and work in Niagara today. Grimby stands with all indigenous people past and present in promoting the wide stewardship of the lands on which we live. Our first agenda item is disclosures of interest. Are there any disclosures of pecunary and non pecunary interest? Seeing none, we can move on to the approval of the agenda. Can I get a mover and second to approve the agenda? Member SM, moved by member SM, seconded by councelor Dvoli. Resolved that the agenda for May 27th, 2026 public works committee meeting be approved. All in favor? That's carried. Okay. Receipt of previous minutes. Can I get a mover and a seconder to receive the previous minutes? Moved by councelor Dvoli. Seconded by councelor How >> put his hand up. >> Uh resolve that the minutes for May 7th, 2026 public works committee meeting be received. All in favor? That's carried. All right. We have a delegation tonight. We have a presentation from Alex White and Lauren Gretzinger regarding neighborhood traffic concerns on Lake Street. I don't I think Lauren uh couldn't make it. So, Alex, if you don't mind coming up to the podium and uh the red button there turns on the mic. Welcome to the public works committee. >> Thank you for having me. Good evening everyone. Thanks for meeting with us. My name is Alex White. I'm speaking on behalf of the Grand Avenue traffic watch team. Um if we can flip to the next slide. Uh, our purpose is to identify, problem, solve, and communicate issues regarding children, students, pedestrian safety in the Lake Street corridor between Bartlett and Ontario Street. Next slide, please. Uh, this is important. This area is primarily a residential neighborhood, which I call home. It contains Grand Avenue Public School and students picked up by the bus for other schools such as Lake View, Central French Merion, West Secondary or sorry, West Niagara Secondary as well as other Catholic schools. It's a growing area with many families and children. The street is highly active with a bike route and m marked bike lanes sharing the maj majority of the corridor. Lake Street is home to one church, two parks, a leashfree dog park, one of really four in the area between Grimby and Beansville. the historic Grimsby beach area, a marina, and four recently added popular semi-public pickle ball courts. The above items traffic many people from outside the area who drive there to get there. This area is also growing with several developments either proposed or underway. Next slide, please. Um the existing road conditions um that span the 27 kilometers um contain no stop signs. There are limited pedestrian crossing opportunities. If there's an accident on the or high traffic on the QEDW, um Lake Streets uses an alternate route or a detour. Um the off-ramp at Bartlett kind of directs people towards Lake Street very easily, whereas turning left towards the traffic lights makes it a little more inconvenient to try and move quickly to the service road. Um there are several straits along the corridor where it's easy to speed. Um, it's home to the Grimsy Water Treatment Plant where there is a route for commercial trucks and RVs to go and use it and the speed limit is consistently 50 km throughout. Next slide, please. Uh, a couple recent incidents in the community, including vehicles, several residents have been rearended while turning into their driveway. Um, the one in the picture, um, the car was written off. It occurred after a speed hump. Um, the driver was distracted. There were two grandchildren in the backseat of the car. Police were called and no one came to the scene. No ticket was issued and no followup happened from the police. Uh next slide please. Um uh some residents are rear ended while reversing out or leaving their driveway. Um the second instance from the same house, it was a guest who was leaving got rear ended along the bend close to Betts and Grand Avenue. Uh next slide please. Um, in March there was a commercial truck, um, I guess servicing the area. It dropped a forklift going over the speed hump. It didn't slow down and the forklift bounced off the the back and rolled twice before coming to a stop. You can see how close it is to someone's driveway. Um, this occurred at 8:15 in the morning um when students are walking to schools and students are coming out to the bus stops. Um the forklift wasn't strapped or chained and yeah it was just it occurred less than 30 meters from a bus stop. Um next slide please. Um during times when the QEW is very congested and there's traffic being diverted around the area where it diverts to Maple Ontario Street and and uh Christy Street. Um there's a lot of through traffic coming from the Beansville Ontario Street coming down Lake Street to hop on back usually at Christy Street. Um it's really hard to make a left turn onto that area just because there's only the one stop sign at Bartlett, but the through traffic can just go right through and so large trucks have an issue making the turn. Pedestrians can't cross at that time and it's really difficult for traffic during those times. Um, also again already mentioned was the the fact that the off-ramp at Bartlett kind of directs people towards Lake Street naturally with that smooth kind of off-ramp. Um, and the service road is not really being highlighted or or used saying like there is a detour this way or there's a possible service road going that way. But I also know that a lot of locals know that there's no stop signs and traffic lights on Lake Street and there's also a police station on the service road which may inhibit people from using it to travel if they want to be quick. Uh next slide please. Um other concerns for the community include pedestrian cyclist concerns. Um drivers um don't typically slow for pedestrians along this corridor. Um there drivers have been observed passing other vehicles using the bike lane to go around drivers who are slowing or coming to a stop often speeding and and honking as they go because they're in a rush. Um drivers have been seen ignoring school buses that have come to a stop and have a flashing blinking light or coming to that point where they're going to and speeding around to try and make time. Um, and one Grand Avenue public school teacher was a victim of an eBike kitten run while commuting to work uh early in the morning around 7:45. Next slide, please. Um, some other um behaviors that have been observed is just like close tailing. Um, it's easy if you drive the speed limit for people to be tailing. There's an aggressive honking. um late at night along these corridors because of the straits there has been regular stunt driving where people are peeling out after the speed humps and trying to go as fast as they can and recently there have been a lot of dirt bikes going up and down the roads um you know popping wheelies and different things and they're not unplated they're just kind of standard you know dirt bikes uh various e scooters and things also joining the area so there's a lot of different kind of traffic hitting the street now uh next slide Um some of the child and family safety concerns that we have are that uh children on the north side of Lake Street lack safe crossing ask us. So um there isn't really any designated pedestrian crossing areas. Um it's sort of you know make sure the road's clear and then cross. So this is difficult for small children or children of a certain age to do safely especially with all the activity that's going on. Students rely heavily on the crossing guard at Grand Avenue as there's no other safe crossways. Some children walk home in the bike lane due to the unsafe crossing during those busy times. So they'll cross with the crossing guard and then they have a bike lane on that side to walk all the way down as far as they're going to go. And at certain areas there's a median that kind of merges the bike lane and traffic pretty close together. And um yeah, there's just some people that just don't slow down and they just continue to to go their their way. Um, cyclists also share the narrow roadway areas. Um, and there are no reduced speeds in any of the zones. So, it's just can be kind of dangerous depending on the time of day and the activity. Next slide, please. Uh, Grand Adic Avenue Public School has 223 students. 82 are bust in, but 141 are considered walkers. Um approximately 50% of the students walk using that Lake Street area, turning the corner and approaching using Lake Street as the main pathway to get to school. Some of them are on the other side um using the other street, but primarily it's the Lake Street access. Next slide, please. Um the current signage along Lake Street, there are a total of 96 traffic signs, not including no exit signs and street signs, um of just general traffic awareness. Um, only four of these along the entire corridor relate to a school crossing, possible pedestrian crossings, or a playground ahead, which is at Nellis Park. Uh, 16 of the signs are related to bike lane awareness. Um, there are no designated crosswalks. There are speed humps. The speed humps, only signage say slow down, speed hump, and then there's a picture of the speed hump, but they don't say caution pedestrians or yield to pedestrians or so. Often there will be people waiting at the the speed humps and cars will slow down to go over, but they'll continue through. Um, oftent times it's seen um people who do see the pedestrians and opt to slow down um have almost been hit from cars approaching them because they're not expecting the car in front of them to actually stop. It's not actually, you know, the proper traffic thing to do because it doesn't say stop or yield to pedestrians. Uh, next slide, please. So there's been uh evidence and and patterns forming um of the speeding problems um as seen with the speeding passing behavior. There's been aggressive driving tailing high acceleration after the speed humps and medians um leading up to and then leaving afterwards. And many previous attempts of traffic calming have been deemed sort of ineffective. There have been flexible traffic uh delineator posts installed primarily on the um other side of the Grand Avenue side towards the water treatment plant. Um these are to allow the commercial trucks the actual space to fit through. But the delineator posts were pretty pretty often damaged and torn down pretty quickly and they were removed eventually and never replaced. Um the speed humps themselves um promote slowing down. They don't allow pedestrians to cross. cars speed up and peel out afterwards. Uh they were installed in 2007 approximately and Grimsley seen a 26% approximate population growth since then and uh they're too few and far between to actually have the traffic calming kind of impact that they need. A lot of other neighborhoods will have, you know, multiple ones in a set, so you have to actually navigate through them. But the fact that you can kind of finish one and then speed off to the next one is an issue. Um these um speed humps, they double as crosswalks for pedestrians, but as we said, there's no actual designated pedestrian crossing or signage to indicate stopping for pedestrians. Next slide, please. Um some comparable examples of improvements in different areas. Um Barton Street and Stony Creek had stop signs added between 50 Road and Fruitland um in the recent years to prevent speeding and increase safety. Um, Olive and Christy near Lake View Public School, they do have designated cross areas. There is a uh slow to 40 km during flashing time during school kind of zones. That school actually faces the actual street. That's understandable, but there is actual like flashing light cross signs for pedestrians to use. Um, in Beesville, Senator Gibson public school has a mix of stop signs, speed bumps that are a little more aggressive in nature, and a designated crossings for pedestrians where it says, "Please stop for the pedestrians," as seen in this picture. Uh, next slide, please. So, our traffic team is requesting some municipal actions hopefully. Um, these are suggestions and not comprehensive. Um, the increased police enforcement during peak hours could start immediately. a traffic or speed study or an up-to-date study could be done. Having temporary radar enforcement or school zone enforcement could happen. Uh in the short term, um stop signs at various areas could be used. Raised crosswalks, safer crossings near the school or community parks um during the where the high pedestrian traffic would be. Possibly reduced speed zones near parks and schools. Signs indicating the service road from the QW Bartlett off-ramp. maybe a sign indicating where there is a detour service road to promote use of. And then long-term traffic calming redesigns, designated pedestrian crossings where pedestrians actually have the right of way to actually have a chance to cross. Uh truck route permissions may be re-evaluated and development of traffic impact review before actual approvals go through. Next slide, please. Um, we're asking um not to eliminate any traffic flow, but we're asking for road safety measures to reflect the reality of the family oriented residential community that has schools, parks, cyclists, and children. Uh, we're here to collaborate and ensure the growing area and popular destination stays safe for everyone. Next slide. Thanks for your time. And does anyone have any questions? >> Thank you, Alex. Uh Lauren has joined as well. I don't know if Lauren wants to speak or not uh via >> um I'm I really appreciate the work that Alex has put into this. So I I don't have any additional things to say other than I know that um that the safety in this area is u is very important um especially as our area is building up. So um thank you. Thank you, Lauren. Are there any questions for Alex from members of the committee? Uh, I've got a Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Margo. Member Smink. >> For you, uh, chair. Um, my name is Marggo Smink. I'm a community member, um, who sits on this committee. Um, I happen to have a background in in traffic operations and safety. So, I have a few kind of technical questions that um hopefully would be able to help our staff and I'm sure they will be in contact with you as well um be able to find the right solutions u for the area. Um um are there particular you've mentioned some specific locations and it probably would be helpful to know for example um where the incidents happened. you you were speaking out about one of the specific speed humps. If you could tell us exactly where that is, um that would be helpful. And if there's particular days and times when our staff should observe, um I'm hearing about a range of times and certainly the morning when when your children are crossing the street. That would be one of them. Um but are there times like this the stunt driving that you're seeing that at different times of the day? So just any more detail that you could provide that's helpful. Thank you. >> Yeah, I'll try and uh cover those. Um the peak times are definitely at school drop off pickup times, the early traffic commute and picking up at the end of the day. There's definitely a lot of time when buses are actually coming to the area, stopping frequently, and some people are trying to zoom around or navigate the neighborhood around them. Getting caught behind the bus can be frustrating for everyone, but you know, safety comes first. Um the incidents um have been seen at the speed hump to answer that question was close to the Baker Road near the park that's there with the pickle ball courts. So there's a speed hump there and so there's a pretty long story after on both sides afterwards and uh some of the incidents are happening um at least one of them in the photos was just after that speed hump. The four clips happened just after that speed hump. Yep. to the I'm all spun around >> Bartlett side. >> To the Bartlett side. That's correct. And then uh also heading towards the Bartlett direction, there's a little bit of a bend before you get to the Grand Avenue. And there is a little bit of a lack of visibility as you're trying to make that corner, especially sun up and sun down. There can be uh some distraction there. And so yeah, just uh the people speeding and not paying attention can be easily caught off guard for pedestrians, cyclists, and other other things happening. Um as far as the um sort of speeding and stunt driving, it's usually um evening dusk time. I'd say between 8:30 and 11 depending on uh the time of night. But yeah, there's just a lot of people. You know, there's loud cars and there's motorcycles that are loud, but you can just tell when there's someone actually peeling out um just trying to drive fast or show off or be loud in the neighborhood for no reason. >> Thank you. Any further councelor? How? Chair, I'm just if I can ask when that uh lift truck bounced off of the trailer, were the police called >> and got charged? >> Yeah, the police were called. >> Um we don't know if they were actually charged or not. We uh called to follow up um with the police and with the company of the driver. Um it took a while for the forklift to actually get moved. There's damage to the street. Um the police arrived because it was a very busy time. buses were traveling and traffic needed to be diverted around that because it's the only lane in the one direction. So, it was kind of a safety concern. >> Happened around March uh I believe it was March 30th or the end of March. >> Thank you. Um you mentioned regional police presence there. Uh have has anybody filled in the Nagra regional police submitted traffic concern on the regional police website? is we're police presence is outside of our of our realm of of of things that we control. Uh but there is they are pretty good at monitoring that the in my experience when when I've reported them, they've actually gotten back to me. They've they've reported back when they were there, what they monitored, what they saw, how many tickets they gave. So, I would I would encourage you and your neighbors because the more people that bring it to their attention, the more it puts it on their radar. But if you go to the Nagara Regional Police uh website and you go submit a uh concern, there's a a a form that you can fill out and it asks for details and I would encourage all of you to do that because that'll get that that's how you get the police there to for that aspect. Um it's disappointing when you know when you say that there was a collision and and nobody came out because collision data is part of what we use what not we what staff use to kind of it's one of the the things that they use to determine whether changes are needed to to to these types of things. And be when they're not reported or they're not recorded they don't show up. And so you can have lots of anecdotal evidence, but if it's not in the record uh on that roadway and specifically recorded in the police data, then it doesn't come across in what we see because obviously our our staff are not kres. They don't know what's happening. You know, they're not omnipotent or omnisient and they don't see everything that's happening all over town. So that's why that data is important. So make sure that people are reporting those things too if there are accidents, if there are uh anything like that. so that that way we can make sure that it gets it gets on the radar. Um, Brandon, did you want to speak at all to any of it? Okay. Yeah. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate you uh coming out to us. Uh, as you can notice, I've been feverishly typing notes, so taking a lot of information from you. I was going to ask make sure if we can get a copy of your presentation afterwards, that'd be great. Can pass it along to the team. Um, so I just I guess a high level uh we were doing a transportation master plan. I don't know if you've heard that, but essentially it's a planning document that looks at uh long-term needs for the town of Grimby. Uh through that process, uh traffic calming is a is a big ask or is a big uh topic, I guess. Uh active transportation improvements, things like uh additional bike bike facilities, sidewalks, things like that. Lake Street has I'm trying to uh give you a synopsis of our transportation master plan in in a couple of words or less but essentially the uh the study has identified Lake Street as one of our priority areas that we need to do some additional analysis of. Um so the next uh out of that study providing council approves it uh will be uh to do a what are they called as a corridor review. So essentially with that it it'll allow us to look at future improvements to Lake Street. uh within the public right ofway uh look at various uh alternatives to improving all modes of travel including uh vehicles uh bicycles uh pedestrians micro mobility someone mentioned the scooters uh with a focus on traffic calming and uh overall road safety uh so the analysis will help us ensure that the roadway aligns with adjacent land uses obviously there's a lot of residential uh it's a residential area uh and and supports the growth in the in the development surrounding the community. Um so out of that it will help us uh come up with some ideas about uh okay here's what we can do on the um I guess big scale side of things from one end to the other here's what we could do multi-use pathway traffic calming pedestrian crossings that kind of thing uh and from there uh it'll develop a cost uh analysis and then we would advance that to council put it as part of our capital works uh project uh for future uh construction that is not a short-term uh solution. So I can walk you through some of the short-term things that we're doing. Um uh so first oh before I get to that, the Niger region is also doing Escarment Crossing and Bartlett uh Bartlett uh Avenue that interchange is one of the areas that are uh uh considered part of that study. So there may be potential improvements. Again, these are more long-term things about how uh vehicles get on and off the highway and uh helping reroute uh the traffic appropriately, not down Lake Street, but on the service roads um in the interimm. So, you mentioned the flexible ballards uh on Lake Street. Uh and yes, we've had some challenges with the ballards going up and people hitting them and and uh or get or taking them off the street and throwing them in the ditches. Um uh but we are uh doing that again this year. Uh we're our focus is on the Bartlett between Bartlett and Baker and between Ontario and Nells. Uh we also have our radar boards that are in rotation uh that we'll be putting in the area. Uh obviously we'll continue to monitor the situation. Uh we do have uh speed monitoring devices that are on top of the street lights in certain areas. uh they're ambiguous so uh drivers don't know that they're there but it allows us to accurately monitor uh speeds to determine um you know uh what the trends are and if we can identify trends we can certainly communicate that to the uh Niger Regional Police who then instead of saying hey we've got speeding can you go out and monitor speeding it's hey we got speeding we're seeing it at 8:00 a.m. uh or 4:00 in the afternoon, can you guys put a present presence out there at that time? And and they usually oblige to help us on that. So, um what else? Uh so, yeah. Yeah, I think that those are the kind of the immediate uh things. Um I again, I've taken a bunch of notes here. I will u uh communicate it to our team. Uh happy to receive your presentation. Again, that'll all be uh taken into consideration as we uh as we continue to work with you. Um yeah, >> thanks. Uh one of you, one of the things I wanted to mention was your presentation mentions stop signs. Uh it's important to note that there are very specific um guidelines and criteria in the the traffic manual, the Ontario traffic manual about where stop signs should be used. Some of those stop signs you're talking about in Stony Creek don't shouldn't be there like that, you know, as much as you you as they they're they're not meant to be for I I don't know how to say it, but traffic calming. Brandon, I don't know if you uh they're it it's meant to be based on the number of cars that interact with one another. Uh Brandon can explain it better, but when they're used in a place where they're not necessary, it actually causes more problems statistically because cars don't pay attention to them. Uh and then if there is a pedestrian there and cars are used to coming there and there's not usually pedestrians and pedestrians expect a car to stop, but a car doesn't expect a pedestrian there, it actually causes further problems. So it's very important that staff follows the guidelines when it comes to those kinds of things, stop signs. That being said, uh, traffic calming is very important in this. We we went through it decades ago, uh, one of my first terms on council with Lake Street because of all the data and the speeding data, but Brandon, if you want to speak further to that. >> Yeah. No, so I I guess just, uh, yeah, I know one of the common requests we get, sorry, three, Mr. Chair, one of the common requests we get is, can we put more stop signs in? And like like the counselor alluded to, the chair alluded to is uh the and I'll look to Margot because she's a specialist in this as well. I think studies have shown that they can become if they're not used in the right context, they become um uh we you get a lot of non-compliance. So people running through stop signs and that can be a challenge in that you have pedestrians that are coming to those stop signs that are the expectation is that vehicle is going to stop for me. And what it can do is cause greater conflicts. Um so we do if there's uh an area and specifically we get requests all the time is hey we feel like the stop sign's needed there we can run a warrant analysis to determine if a stop sign is required go through our our standards to develop uh and and follow the guidelines to determine if if one is required or not. The other challenge, and I think you mentioned this in the speed humps, too, and this may be a an issue that that we need to address long term, is if you put stop signs in, what you find is and and they're they're being used for traffic calming rather than for um allowing traffic to function turning turning movements and and things like that is you can get drivers speeding up in between the stop signs, right? They're, oh, they're going to slow me down. I'm going to uh speed up in between the stop signs. And I think you mentioned that, too. They go over the speed pumps and then they rev their engines and and try to uh get everyone upset. So, um did I did I help there, Marggo? I'm not sure if there's anything else you you wanted to add on that. >> Members think >> uh through you, chair. Um I would concur about the um the stop signs. The one place that I would be very interested to see how it would do on the warrants is at uh Bartlett itself, but um I've I've seen it myself. I live in the east end of town, so it can be very difficult to to turn there. Um, one of the new tools that's available in Ontario are different types of um, pedestrian crossings. And I would actually suggest that you go to Nellis south of Main Street where close to the Nellis School there is um, and and I'd get out and actually see how it works. you, you know, they push a button and a very bright light is shining and they've found that that is a lot um more effective at getting the driver's attention and getting them to be able to stop and of course it's only when there's someone there. So that might be an option our staff would look at in their study. So I think quite a number of the things that you asked in the short term we should be able to do between the police and um the studies and some immediate things in terms of radar boards. And I I would also just just repeat that this is, you know, it is it is a problem area. We know and the detail that you've been able to provide us is has really helped to be able to nail this down. You guys are the experts because you see it all the time. Thanks a lot. >> Terrific. Oh, councelor How. Yeah. >> I'm through you, Chair. Not trying to dodge you. Um but brought up used to and I used this analogy the other night Elmer safety elephant. Okay. And is there such a thing in the school like do the police come into grand and I suspect that's your main your main school but do they come in and present anything to the kids you know part of it becomes awareness um you know with the kids we dodge that. I'm not sure if Lauren is still >> I can answer that. >> Um uh so uh we don't have Elmer the safety elephant coming around anymore, but we are running within the school um uh a signage and awareness campaign. um we're going to have kids developing some slowed down or some other similar um uh signage um that we are going to put into into the neighborhood and um and the and that will be the message from the kids. So we are we are using this as an awareness strategy for them as well. Um but uh interestingly Elmer's not Elmer's not around anymore. >> Too bad he was good. >> Yeah. I wouldn't want to wear the costume though. >> That's where we differ. >> Um, any further questions? Member Murphy, >> where is the stunt driving going on? Is it on p private property or is it on public property? Um it's been observed on Lake Street specifically. So usually after the speeds or people making a right at Baker towards Bartlett or u making a left going towards the water treatment plant where there's a little bit of a longer straight. So you know you're able to pick up some speed there if you really wanted to do it. I mean what I was thinking Brandon there's some way we could just get some immediate action in there even just for a while just to get the message out. >> Possible. >> Yep. >> Yeah. So again um we are uh recommending as short-term actions the delineators uh our radar boards and and other measures. Uh again, I'll take it away with the team uh to look at um the vehicle trends and if we can identify uh specific times of the day that we can relay to the police department, then that helps uh uh helps um what do you call it? Uh get their assistance to help with enforcement. Um I uh I I would say to the residents um the the being in close like we can advocate for you to the police department but it also helps that you advocate for yourself as well. So um we can support you in that way but is important for you as well to advocate to the the police department to uh uh and and like like us they have challenges and resources but uh if if they get enough uh what do you call it? um input from the residents, uh they they can help out, too. So, and again, like we'll help what we can to to help advocate with the police department for that. >> So, just further that there it's traffic complaints at Niagara Police.ca. Uh and there's also an online form. So, if you Google uh Niagara Regional Police traffic complaints and scroll down to the bottom, there's a an online form that allows you to fill in the specifics, but you could also send them an email. Trafficcomplaints police.ca. Uh, we do need a motion to direct staff um to report back to the committee. Noah, did you want to read it or >> I can. Yeah. >> Yeah. Or I can read it off your if you don't mind reading it. That would be probably easier. >> Okay. >> Just make sure the right one. Resolve that the public works committee recommend that council direct staff to report back regarding neighborhood traffic safety concerns on Lake Street between Bartlett Avenue and Ontario Street. And we would need a mover and seconder for that. >> I've got councelor How and Member So moved by councelor How, seconded by member Sphin. >> Resolve that. >> Resolve that the public works committee recommend that council direct staff to report back regarding neighborhood traffic safety concerns on Lake Street between Bartlett Avenue and Ontario Street. >> Thank you. Sorry for making you read it again. All in favor? That's carried. I also need um a mover and a seconder to receive the presentation. Moved by councelor Dvoli, seconded by member Murphy. >> Uh resolved that the delegation from Alex White regarding neighborhood traffic safety concerns, Lake Street be received for information. All in favor? That's carried. Thanks, Alex. uh very well done on the presentation like the detail and all of the points make it a lot easier for us to get what you're saying and it's always nice when I I people are reasonable you know you were very reasonable and and you know not coming in with pitchforks but with with reason with a reasonable approach right I we uh we share your concerns obviously and and as member mentioned um you see it firsthand you know when we're driving when I drive through your neighborhood I'm going through the neighborhood most of the time. So, uh or I'm going to Pizza Dona. So, so it's I've got a very specific destination, but as somebody who lives there and residents, you see it every day and and it's it's great to have that feedback. So, and we do have the traffic management uh the TMP coming forward. We have uh data from our ballards and our pilot projects. So, staff has a have a place to start from. so that it's it's great that you came forward and hopefully we can get some answers for you. Have a great night. >> Thank you very much. >> Uh consent reports. >> Thank you. Um there are no consent reports. Uh if you don't want to stay for the duration of the meeting, I'll give you a sec to >> say anything. >> No. >> Uh it's you have to be a delegation, but you can email us, email me, email my all of our email addresses are on the the web page. You can call me. My number is on there. It's just for a presentation here. You have to be on the delegation. >> I understand that just the motion that you accepted was specifically between Bartlett and Ontario Street and completely ignores the other portion which is from >> Okay. So that's so you're not on camera, but that's a valid point. Brandon, uh do you want to speak to that? >> Uh yeah, I didn't I didn't notice that in the motion, but I won't. We'll we'll look at the whole section right from the uh Lincoln Lincoln limit all the way to Ontario Street. Yeah. Yeah. You're welcome. >> Thank you. Uh we have a discussion report. Oh, did I I'll give you a moment if you don't have to stay for the rest of our reports. I'll give you a moment to leave. So the it's not the most exciting, but maybe for Brandon it is. But >> it's sunny outside, so I'll give you a minute to leave. Thank Thank you for coming everybody. All right. Uh, can I get a mover and secondary to get re report DPW2614 2026 Town of Grimsby QMS operation plan endorsement on the floor for discussion? Councelor Dvoley moved by councelor Dvoli, seconded by member SM. Uh, who's on for this one? Is it Jackson? Okay, Jackson. Council. >> Oh, council. >> Read this. >> He has to read this entire report out, doesn't he? >> Yes. Just so we know. >> No paraphrasing. >> Thank you. And uh and through you, the chair. So this report provides the annual review and endorsement of the town's drinking water, roads, wastewater, and storm water quality management system operational plans and policies. So the operational plan is a highle summary that outlines how the town manages and maintains the drinking water, transportation infrastructure, wastewater collection, and storm water management systems in accordance with applicable regulatory approval and internal requirements. The accompanying policies serve as the town's mission statements and written commitments to the effective management and continual improvements of these systems. Since the previous endorsement, the MECP has released updated DWQM, so drinking water quality management system requirements and related best management practices. The drinking water operational plan has been reviewed and updated to reflect these changes, including the addition of a best management practices log for the roads, wastewater, and storm water quality management systems. This year's review identified minor updates, including changes to position titles, formatting, system descriptions, and an update to the approval process for operational plan endorsements. This report also outlines the updated external audit costs associated with maintaining the drinking water QM accreditation. There are no external accreditation or audit costs associated with the other QM programs. The broader financial impacts of operating these systems are captured through the respective annual and operating budgets. So, in summary, this review confirms the town's drinking water, roads, wastewater, and storm water quality management systems continue to support compliance and continue improvement. Thank you for your time. Staff are available to receive comments or answer any questions. >> Councelor How through your chair. um Jackson the and the report is dead on. Um but we've we're coming into a time where there's going to be some changes that how they seem to be treating water. Um, and the one thing that I learned very early on in this, um, not in this presentation, but for members of council and the liability or the, um, the Yeah, it's the liability that is presented or or on members of council to make sure that in fact that thing is working well. Obviously, it was Walkerton that started all that and brought it to our attention, unfortunately. But it is that important and it can if something went sideways, uh, then we're sitting on a can of thorns and it wouldn't be very pleasant. But thank you very much for your report. >> Member Stink. >> Uh, through you, Chair Jackson. Just have a couple of questions. By the way, I love the summaries of what the changes were. That helped a lot. Quite a few of them were referring to the new PCAR process. Well, that which I gather stands for preventative, corrective, and request log. Is that what you were talking about with the MCP? And can you just describe what that is? Thank you. >> Yeah, absolutely. Yes, you are correct. It's the preventative correct correction and action log. Um so when we conduct internal external audits um any management reviews infrastructure reviews we take uh track of action items non-conformances to our system um best management practices ongoing. So, we've identified this and we've created a log that essentially captures all of our captures and tracks all of our action items and otherwise um for the status and due dates um to make to make sure that we're we're completing them. >> Okay, I think I understand. I'm sure I've seen these in the last year or so and it's like a like a table and has who who's supposed to do it and by when um that doesn't seem like an additional requirement may maybe I'm just not understanding. >> Yeah, maybe just to add Mr. Chair. So, uh PC card preventive corrective action request or something like that I think is the acronym. So, like I think just to expand on what Jackson said is uh so essentially it's a form that says, "Hey, we've identified this issue uh and here's what we're going to do to uh rectify that issue. Here's who's responsible. Here's the time frame for when it happens or what we'd like to get done. Uh and then uh once we do the action, we're required to record that on that form to identify uh that the action was done and and what was done." So, it's it's it kind of helps with our audit trail. So an auditor points something out or we find something ourselves uh then we put it on a form we log it in our uh what do you call it recordkeeping log uh and then uh are audited against it the next time the auditor comes in to show uh hey we had this PER come up last time here's what we did to address it it's been signed off it's closed kind of thing does that help yeah >> thank you uh the only question that I had was one of the things that comes up repeatedly as a discussion is when a water mane replacement happens and then a road road work happens or road work happens and then a water main replacement happens within a few years of each other. Um so I guess my question is how do we ensure that uh water main replacements and road reconstruction projects avoid redigging later on? like is there a GIS overlay that allows you to identify, you know, we need to do this road work in 5 years? We've we've had this discussion before, but um we have to do this road work in 5 years. This water man needs to be replaced in seven. We'll wait seven years for the road so that that way when we do the water man, we we're not digging up the road twice. >> You you answered your own question. Yes. No, that's exactly it. So um as part of our uh uh capital works plans, we have a essentially a forecast for what water main needs to be done when. Uh we layer in where our needs are in terms of the road uh rehabilit re rehabilitation um and we look at things like uh sanitary sewer as well. So we're trying to ensure that we don't uh get into the situation of paving the road and digging up the water man afterwards. Um mostly what we're doing is doing the underground works first and then coming back a few years later and doing the uh the road uh resurfacing. So you would could could see at times uh us putting a water man in paving the trench and then coming back a few years later and then paving the whole road if if there's a need there. >> Thank you. Are there any further questions for Brandon? Seeing none, I've got a motion moved by councelor Dvoi, seconded by member resolved that report DPW 2614, 2026, Town of Grimsby QM operational plan endorsements dated May 27th, 2026 be received and that the town public works committee recommends council endorse the current revisions for drinking water, roads, wastewater, and storm water QM operation plans dated May 27th, 2026. and that the public works committee recommends council endorse the existing policy statements as per the respective QM operational plans and QM policies and that the public works committee recommends that the council resolution serves as evidence of council's written commitment to and endorsement of the current revisions of drinking water roads wastewater and storm water QM operational plans and policies. All in favor? That's carried. We have a piece of correspondence uh from Brandon which is a memo about the automated speed enforcement red light camera programs revenue update. We had a bit of a discussion about this the last time around. Brandon, go ahead. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Um so yeah, we're providing this memo uh in follow-up to the questions that were raised at the last uh public works committee meeting with respect to the requested changes to the intermunicipal courts agreement. Uh an amendment was required to remove uh the automated speed enforcement devices, the uh radar cameras uh and extend the agreement for the red light cameras for another 3 years. Uh question also came up at the last meeting concerning how much the revenue was uh how much revenue was received from that program and where the funds are allocated and the memo tries to uh answer those questions. Uh just high level I'll outline uh kind of what the content is. till uh in terms of the actual program uh it was initiated in 2023. Uh we started seeing revenue in 2024. Uh the way the agreement works and I think Mr. Member Ratty had mentioned this last time is uh uh that there any net revenue over and above the cost to operate the program uh is distributed between uh 50/50 between the region and then the local municipalities are participating. Uh the agreement does require the revenue uh received to be used specifically on road safety related initiatives. Um so uh we've provided a breakdown in the memo, but the town has received around8 168,000 uh over the 2-year period from 24 and 25 and the town has allocated that money towards the funding of a transportation engineering technology position uh on contract. Uh and that position again I talk about uh what the details of that position are in in uh in the memo just uh responding to road safety inquiries supporting our ongoing trafficcoming measures radar board's flexible signage program collecting and analyzing our data uh listening to concerns and and and following up with them and and so on. Um so as I think I had mentioned previously that the town as part of our transportation master plan um some of the uh recommendations coming out out of that are a review of our our resourcing uh and we will be bringing that forward to council as uh uh as we move into the next budget cycle to have those those conversations. Happy to take any question any further questions on that uh on the memo. Council Dvoli, >> if I can get you to your >> Oh, sorry. >> Thank you, chair. Um, thank you for that recap of of what we've received in the past. Um, which then of course caused me to to >> ask more questions. Absolutely. 2026. I I do not remember the budget in detail, but did we budget hoping for some revenue from it or we did we do it on on the assumption that they they were talking about there'd be very little and there was so much discussion over the automated speed camera. Did we budget zero for it? Um do you remember the details? >> I do remember the details. Um so through Mr. Um, so the revenue was to cover the position for 2 years. It wasn't fully funded. So we did have to uh fund some of the position from um uh there's a staffing reserve or a certain reserve that um I may not stabilization reserve or something like that there. It wasn't fully funded. So we did have to and and the we knew late last year with the automatic speed enforcement ending that the revenue would slow down. So we had taken that into consideration ensuring that we could fund that position to the end of this year. That helps >> members think >> uh through you chair. So the line share of the the um revenue that we received in 2024 and 2025 was through the speed enforcement as opposed to through the red light camera. The red light camera the single one that we have is going to continue but small negligible I'm thinking. >> Yeah. So the region has told us as part of their review that they they feel that uh although we have one there's other municipalities have you know other cameras but they feel that the um scale of the program is is going to how do I say this the there is going to be enough funds to fund the program itself without u surplus. they don't believe uh so it's it's uh there won't be a surplus coming back to the m municipalities and if there's a deficit the region has agreed to cover those costs rather than uh asking the municipalities uh participating municipalities to pay for it so they do feel that the revenue is going to be a lot less >> any further questions for Brandon I need a mover and seconder to receive the memo moved by member seconded by councelor Dvoli Resolve that the memorandum from Brandon Wartman regarding the automated speed enforcement and red light camera programs revenue update be received for information. All in favor? That's carried. Uh there's no new business. >> Brandon has updates. >> Brandon, you have some updates. >> Yeah, thank you. I I slid it into the uh uh what is this? What's what section are we on? No, we didn't. We took new business out, so I slid it into this section. and whatever we're on. Uh so sorry. Uh I thought I could provide some updates. Uh been trying to there's some big projects and I thought it's good to keep keep everyone in the loop. So uh first I'll just touch on the downtown reimagined. Uh I mentioned it last time that we were uh closing the tender and we had a contractor. So pleased to announce we have uh landed on a contractor. They've signed the agreement. So it's official. Contractor's name is Alfred Beam Excavating Limited. They're commonly referred to as Beam. uh local contractor from Foreri. I have extensive experience completing uh successful projects across the region. Uh we have our project meeting uh our kickoff meeting this coming Monday. Uh discussing various details of the project, their schedule, traffic management and so on. Uh uh they should be on schedule to begin the work uh uh June 22nd as requested. They'll probably start with some sign setups and the digging from there. Uh also an update on our communication side of things. So, our communication team has been working feverishly in the background developing our communications plan. Uh we're preparing to ramp up the cadence of our uh communications as we uh move into construction. Uh so, we've invited our communications consultant um to attend the June 15th council meeting uh so they can update council on the project with their specific focus on uh the communication side of things. That's just to make sure council is aware. Hey, here's what we've been doing and here's here's how we're going to manage things on the communication side of things. Uh going forward, uh we've also been working on a refresh of the downtown reimagine brand or logo and uh the new brand will be probably launched within the next week or so. So uh we would encourage you to sign up uh to the let's talk page and uh you can receive your uh updates. All you have to do is provide us your email address and uh and uh you you'll get uh regular emails as as the uh uh as the communications happen. Uh we'll be able to provide another update uh at our our June 24th public works committee as well. Uh I'll pause there if there's any questions. >> Member >> through you chair. Um because this is happening before the next public works meeting. I just I know you've had a pre-construction meeting. just wondered if there's any changes um to the staging um the expected completion date the detour routes anything else that I mean I know that the communication is going to go out but if there's going to be any impact to the the citizens um I think would be good if we know about it in advance thank you >> yeah through you Mr. Sure. So, uh, we have our construction pre-construction meeting on Monday. Uh, we'll get into those details. We have received a copy of their schedule and we're starting to review it. Um, the schedule shows that they're completing by October 31st and they're starting on June 22nd. So, that's good. Uh, the order in which they're doing things is a little bit different. Uh, we're still trying to manage uh developer who is in close proximity, who's on the road as well. Uh, so all of those balls are in the air and we're trying to juggle them. Um but the I guess at the end of the day the intent is that uh we'll be providing communications as soon as we can to inform the businesses uh what's going on when it's going to happen. Uh again this is the uh a lot of work has been done in the background setting everything up for for the cadence of the communication. We're looking to happen on a weekly basis. Here's what happened this week. Here's what's going to happen next week. A lot of time and effort is going to go into that. So trying to get all all of our ducks in a row to to set that up. So, uh, yeah. So, stay tuned. >> Councelor Dvulli. >> I'm I thank you, Chair. Um we're getting into the season now where pardon me uh June is our last committee meeting and then of course um we uh the committee work uh you know dies off and won't be meeting until um the new year again. Um and so I guess in terms of your approach you'll be providing updates to council. Is that the the thinking behind that? Um uh that's my first question to have because I I'm thinking normally you would have been coming back to the committee to provide updates on what's going on. So that's my first question. My second one is um if the answer to that is yes. Um what what took place with the Peach King Center when we did the addition was that there were regular reports financial reports that were coming to finance and of course finance won't be meeting neither. But I guess the second part is if the answer is yes and you'll be providing reports to council, can you also provide sort of financial updates as you go along? Um at that same time >> through Mr. Chair, I guess the first one's easy. Yes, we'll providing updates uh what we can to council. um in absence of the committee I'm hoping that through like what we're setting up is through our communications that there will be not channels but uh content that will be structured towards council notification keeping council in the loop uh internal communications uh business members uh and the general public um social media posts that that kind of thing. So, it's all wrapped up in a a lovely communication strategy um that I'm learning a lot about as we go through this project. It's turned into uh instead of a just a engineering project, it's an engineering and communications project. So, the team is learning a lot about it. Uh in terms of financial op updates, I I think we can provide high level updates. um difficulty being that uh you know the the we get progress reports on a monthly basis in terms of payments. I mean I guess I guess at a high level we could tell you hey if we have any concerns um I don't knock on wood anticipate that but we can certainly layer in uh some level of communication in terms of our financing. I just don't know how granular it's going to be that's all. Um and if you want to get into those details we can have those conversations. Um, thank you. A and, um, this is a project that's not nearly on the scale dollar-wise compared to the Peach King Center. Um, so, you know, we were particularly concerned about monitoring that and making sure that it was staying on budget. Um, and we realized that from an operational perspective or from a project management perspective, that's always in your lens anyway. Um maybe um the way to approach it is just on an exception basis then that if if there's something that arises that's an anomaly that you'd come to council with your update >> through Mr. Chair. One of the challenges in that's different from civil and and u uh maybe a building uh work is a lot of our work is based on quantities. So you put an estimate together. Here's how much stone we think we need. uh you don't find out how much stone you really have used until closer to the end. So there's a bit of a balance of hey we had way too much stone but guess what we saved on we didn't have to put this manhole in or we didn't have to extend the water man as far so there's a balance there. So that's why it's a little bit more difficult to say uh yeah I can tell you exactly what the pulse is right now. Uh on the change order side of things we do become aware of things that uh you know crop up that we're unaware of that become cause uh do cost extra. Uh again, that's layered in with uh is that truly an extra or did we save money on stone, which uh at the end of the day, it's a wash. So, we'll we'll do our best to keep everyone in the loop and and uh yeah. >> Uh so, you you talked about uh the email list. I'm I'm assuming that anybody who's already signed up will be carried over. They don't have to sign up again, right? So, because there are lots of people that have been involved in this process all the way through. you're nodding yes so you don't have to say yes that's great. Um as far as the I if history's taught us anything it's that when there are projects like this communication is going to be key. So, I'm happy to hear that we have a communication plan in place that you're talking about it being both a construction and a communication project because where we've gotten into issues in the past has been when there seems to be a lack of communication. So, if we need to let's overcommunicate, you know, like let's be accused of communicating too much, not not enough. That that's the only, you know, let's not be surprised by people saying we never heard about this. Let's say, oh, why are you telling me this every other day? Well, because we want to cover um so the other thing I wanted to ask was during this process, you're talking you talked about the construction uh pre-planning starting Monday. So when when that happens, I'm assuming that things like um like an emergency vehicle response plan happens at that stage and and that rrooting and all the things cuz member already talked about trucks and things like that. Um you know, I'm thinking about fire trucks and uh paramedics and and all of those types of things being notified of closures and so that that way we can ensure that safe people are safe. >> Yeah. So again, that'll be part of the communications process. Anytime we're doing a road closure, we have a essentially required to uh notify everyone who's who's doing the closure. So those are our kind of standard communications, but on top of that, we'll also be doing the the project specific communications. Um what else was I going to say? We have developed uh as part of the specifications, we de developed uh detour plans, detour routes that we thought the contractor should be using. Uh part of our conversations will be uh hey we we we developed these uh are you good with them? Is there any changes needed? How does this play in with the if you're using two crews? That kind of thing. So we'll get into all those details with the contractor and do our best to to manage the traffic. And our goal here is that we're uh providing timely updates and updates in advance of the construction to let people know, hey, here's what's coming. Um, I'm hoping I'm not uh overpromising, but uh that's the intent going into this. >> And I know it's not going to be an easy 2 years over the time that this process happens, but I'm already excited about the outcome, what we're going to see when it's done. You know, like the from what I've seen from the drawings and from what I can imagine. What I've learned in these types of projects in the past is that what you see on paper might look really cool, but what you see in real life always exceeds what you see on paper. And I'm sure this is going to be another one of those those times. So, I'm already excited about I wish I could hit a fast forward button. I'm sure you wish you could hit a fast forward button, too. Uh, but I'm I'm glad that we're on schedule and that uh we're moving forward with this in in a timely manner. Any other questions for for Brandon? Brandon, was there anything else that you wanted to update on? Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. Thank you, uh, Mr. Chair. Uh, so I just wanted to re, I guess, let council know or remind the committee that, uh, our transportation master plan came to council on Monday evening. Uh, the consolidated TMP study document, I think I mentioned this last time. U, we're still having the final touches put on it, so we're probably a few weeks away from having it in a position where we can give the whole document out to the public. Um our our so our consultant prepared an executive summary and uh provided a presentation uh at the committee meeting um and and uh at the meeting council provided their endorsement for us to publish the draft as soon as it's ready. Uh once the draft is out uh there's a 30-day consultation period. Um and we recognize that the the significance of this uh accomplishment or this document in terms of uh the committee's input. Uh we do apologize for the delays and getting the draft document out to you uh ahead of that uh end of the committee's term, but uh um there will be an opportunity for the committee to provide uh their feedback u um during that 30-day period and and uh there'll be future opportunities, I guess, at the next committee meeting uh for us to uh receive input uh or uh we can do it outside of the committee as well if if needed. So um so yeah, that's all I I wanted to say about that. Um happy to take any questions. >> Questions? Uh councelor member stinking >> uh through you chair. So just to clarify, you do expect within the few week next few weeks, so before the next scheduled public works meeting that the the complete draft report will be available and you'd like the committee's comments as part of the discussion at that last meeting or you know individually to correspondence. I'm just just trying to figure that out. >> We could um through you Mr. Chair. Uh yes, so next couple weeks uh understanding that the committee term ends uh I think our last meeting is June 24th. Um happy to receive your input uh email. We um yeah I I we we hadn't planned on bringing a report forward or or having a designated time for conversation. Um so you know you could email those questions to us or members if they want to email those questions to us we'll certainly take them into consideration. uh maybe at the last committee meeting we can uh make sure there's an opportunity if there's any further questions that we want to or things like that we can make sure we make time for it. I don't I haven't looked at ahead at the agenda. I don't again I don't think it's um we have any um what do you call it? It doesn't look like a heavy agenda coming up to the last one. So I can't see why uh why we couldn't do both. Thank you. Uh, any further questions for Brandon? I do want to apologize. Councelor Frank was here earlier in the evening. Usually we recognize members of Traditionally, we've always recognized members of council when they're in in attendance, but not a member of the committee, and I it just completely slipped my mind. So, he's probably not going to see this, but I just feel bad for not acknowledging the fact that he was here for the meeting earlier. Uh it's just something that we've always done traditionally is acknowledged other members of council. So if you're out there, councelor Frank, I please accept my apology for not for not doing that earlier. Uh the next meeting of the public works committee is scheduled for Wednesday, June 24th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. Meetings adjourned. Thank you everybody. Have a great night and go Habs. Go.