When I received an invitation from PelhamToday for an end-of-the-year column, it got me to thinking as to when my last column was written. Much to my surprise that column appeared around a year and a half ago! I think that it is a given that the older one gets, the faster the clock ticks, and if one throws in a busy schedule, along with a compilation of years, then the pages really fly off the calendar.
The pictures that accompany this column bring this point home. At the top of this article is a photo of my granddaughter, Charlotte, when she greeted me one fall day as a 4-year-old princess, after I had driven the combine into the farmyard.
The photo above was taken this past August, with the now 12-year-old Charlotte as the operator of the combine, with grandpa keeping an eye on things from outside the cab. All we can do is shake our heads in disbelief, and wonder, once again, where the years have gone.
I find time is also speeding by in my role as Mayor of Pelham. I have had this honour for six years now, and the changes brought forward by Town Council and Town staff are amazing. From a very shaky financial situation at the beginning of my first term as Mayor, all of the last five years have ended with a surplus, and 2024 is tracking in the same direction.
Our roads throughout our rural areas are being re-surfaced at a steady pace, and the urbanization of Pelham Street has been completed! With the new addition to Town Hall, the washrooms contained within allowed for the Town to do away with the port-a-potties of bygone years.
The Town now has electric car charging stations at Town Hall and the MCC, with more stations to be included at Centennial Park in Fenwick. The Town currently has three electric vehicles in its fleet—two cars and a pick-up truck.
In the very near future, council will be making a decision on putting solar panels on the MCC building. This has been looked at in the past, but the weight of the panels was deemed to be too heavy for the roof. With solar panel design advancements over the last few years, the weight of the panels has been reduced significantly, now making their weight a non-issue.
The re-habitation of the headwaters of the Twelve Mile Creek was another environmental success story. Severe erosion was taking place, washing hundreds of tons of silt downstream, damaging fish habitat, and harming other stream inhabitants. The coming together of the Niagara Region, the NPCA, the City of Thorold, the Town of Pelham, and the federal agency — the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans—was needed to find an engineered solution allowing us to work together to complete the project. I must also mention that the local chapter of Trout Unlimited, with Dennis Edell as their president, was instrumental in getting the project off the ground. All in all, a big win for the last remaining cold-water stream in Niagara.
I am hoping that going forward that I will once again return to writing a more regular column; I have always enjoyed it, although sometimes life gets in the way. I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone the happiest of holidays, and the very best for the New Year.
