A small selection of the emails received over the past few days. Public engagement does not end with the August 10th feedback deadline – the Mayor and pro-replacement Councillors still must convince a majority of voters to support borrowing an historical amount of money in the November referendum. [...]
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In stark contrast to Victoria, Portland is high lighting its historic bridges with a summer festival full of music, picnics, tours, galleries, fireworks, cycling events, films, poetry, talks and bridge lighting events. The entire city is historic bridge themed for the festival, which is drawing locals and tourists alike. [...] On Saturday April 24th we will have a table in Centennial Square, joining dozens of organizations striving to make our communities more sustainable. The walk begins at Noon at the BC Legislature, and arrives at the square around 1:15 for speeches from Vicky Husband and Ross Crockford, and music by Oliver Swain and Friends, and the Ecclestons. [...]  As expected, council has chosen the second option – previous meetings and statements (plus nearly 10 000 petition signatures) made it clear the public wants in depth examination of repairing the bridge, to balance that against the information already known about the chosen replacement bridge, and make a decision. [...] Ed Wortman is a retired bridge engineer who specialized in restoring historical structures and was in charge of the restoration program of Portland Oregon’s historical bridge restoration program. Sharon Wortman is Portland’s unofficial bridge historian and has written three editions of The Portland Bridge Book. She is also helping direct the 2010 Festival of Bridges: Celebrating Portland’s Historical Bridges. [...] This weekend, johnsonstreetbridge.org will be hosting an event with two bridge experts from Portland, who are here to speak about the importance of heritage bridges to their city, and make the case for repairing Victoria’s 85-year-old Johnson Street Bridge. [...] Mr. Nelson was invited to Victoria to inform the public through media interviews, an open public meeting, and conversations with council members and stakeholders, that a refurbishment option for the bridge was as viable as replacement, and would save money in the short and long term. [...] We are pleased to announce a public meeting with guest Frank Nelson, Senior Supervisory Engineer in the Seattle office of Parsons Brinckerhoff, one of the world’s largest engineering firms, who will present a case for restoration of the Johnson Street Bridge. [...] This morning, Victoria’s city councillors will sit down and try to figure out what to do next, now that it’s clear they won’t be getting millions in federal stimulus cash for a new Johnson Street Bridge. By all indications, they’re going to push ahead with the $63-million project anyway. The City’s website says “a good case” can be made for proceeding because interest rates are low, so we should borrow as much as possible – a similar rationale used by subprime-mortgaged homeowners when trading in their bungalows for luxury mansions. [...] At the last meeting, with the announcement the project would not receive federal and provincial funding, council gave itself two weeks to ask staff questions – and hopefully look at all the implications, especially city financing, potential tax hikes, and the effects on other pressing projects. [...] |
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