January

Conservative Bob Callow congratulated Lui Temelkovski at his election night party.

Not much of 2006 had passed before King Township's population started to expand.

Young Richelle Wing-Yu Chiu entered the world Jan. 4 at Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket. The fourth daughter of Morris and Jenny Chiu arrived at 8:41 a.m., weighing in at six pounds, 12 ounces.

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Mayor Margaret Black entered the new year confident that York Region would put up some money to help defray the costs of installing the sewers in King City. It turned out that confidence was well placed.

Regional councillors voted to commit $1.5 million to the on-going project, ratifying the decision that had been made by their finance and administration committee.

"We realize it's a big expense," commented Aurora Mayor Tim Jones, chair of the committee, who added the councillors were on side with the final decision, that was made in closed session.

"Everybody was fine with it," he declared. "It just needed to be discussed and understood."

Regional Chair Bill Fisch agreed with the need to assist residents of King City in reducing the costs they would be on the hook for to install the sewers.

Black said the Township remained responsible for the other regional works costs, which council capped at $2.1 million. Township staff was working on arrangements to cover those expenses.

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Students at Schomberg Public School returned to class for a new year to be greeted by a new principal. Evelyn Crocker took over the helm, replacing Robert Reid.

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King residents, along with everyone else in Canada, started the year with politics high on the national agenda.

Nine candidates were seeking the two seats that include parts of King, and Liberals and Conservatives had their respective party leaders, Paul Martin and Stephen Harper, cruise through the area to help rally the respective troops.

By month's end, the voters had spoken and the same two MPs were sent back Ottawa, with some significant changes. Lui Temelkovski was returned to speak for Oak Ridges - Markham residents, but from the opposition benches this time. Peter Van Loan was sent back to represent York - Simcoe on the government side.

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A joint committee of Concerned Citizens of King Township (CCKT) and the King Township Chamber of Commerce were looking into a bypass for King City and Nobleton, and the membership decided that York Region should be asked to get on with the process.

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Hydro One announced it would be holding information sessions into plans to place a transformer station somewhere in the Holland Marsh area.

Hydro One had been directed by the Ontario Energy Board to locate a transformer station in the area to meet the growing energy needs of the northern part of York Region. It was seeking public input on a number of potential sites in the Marsh area of King and East Gwillimbury.

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Changes were made to the subdivision proposed by Laurier Homes (27) Ltd. in Schomberg, but there were still some concerned people in the community attending a open house in January.

Many of the concerns involved impact this would have on people living on the east side of Main Street in the village, as many of their back yards would abut the proposed development.

Five metres had been added to the depth of the lots proposed to back onto Main Street, making them 45 metres.

Other changes included the number of proposed units being increased, from 228 to 232, with the number of semi-detached units cut from 86 to 58. But 30 townhouse dwellings had been added to the plan, as well as two more singledetached houses.

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It started as a local annoyance in and around Ansnorveldt, but it soon spread to rural areas all over the country.

The mail carrier in the area abruptly stopped delivering to some of the private mailboxes in the area because they were apparently too close to the road, and that sudden revelation sparked a lot of anger among local residents.

Canada Post spokesperson Scott Lewis confirmed that the mail carrier in the area had stopped delivering because of safety concerns. But they had instituted some temporary measures to help get people their mail.

Local residents figured that would mean super mailboxes for the community down the road.

Lewis said the issue of safety was raised, meaning the Crown corporation was obliged to take it seriously.

People delivering along routes like this used to be contracted rural and suburban mail carriers, he explained. About 6,000 of them across Canada were taken on as employees, effective January 2004. As employees, they also became members of the Canadian Union of Postal Employees.

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Parking was banned on the stretch of the 16th Sideroad running west off Bathurst Street to the point where the paved area ends and a stretch of the Oak Ridges Moraine Trail begins, and there was also to be more enforcement from Township bylaw staff, as well as Kennel Inn, which handles animal control matters for the municipality.

That was the way Township council decided to handle the dog problem that local residents had been reporting in the area.

The area had become popular as a place for dog owners to bring their fourlegged friends, and one of the local property owners had even obligingly allowed dogs to run on his land without leashes.

Township Clerk Chris Somerville reported they started getting complaints in November, with people upset over the number of cars being parked, dogs running at large where they shouldn't, noise and people trespassing. Some area residents had been intimidated by the dogs there. As well, there had been concerns about parked cars blocking the road and garbage left in the area, along with the fact some of the owners had not been cleaning up after their pets. There were also cases of dog walkers being rude to neighbours when asked to move their cars or curb the pets.

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Vaughan - King - Aurora MPP Greg Sorbara was smarting after he had been forced to resign as finance minister the previous October when his name appeared in an RCMP investigation related to a land transaction that took place prior to his joining the cabinet of Premier Dalton McGuinty, but he seemed pleased with the progress of discussions with justice officials regarding RCMP investigations.