DENNIS DICK FOR
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE COUNCIL
Honesty, Integrity and Dedication
Dennis Dick is a lifelong resident of Niagara-on-the-Lake. He is married to Shirley and has two grownup children.
Dennis is a graduate of the University of Guelph. He owned a wine grape farm and currently owns and operates an excavation company. He has had the privilege of being elected to Council previously and has valuable political experience having worked on many Town committees.
Dennis is currently involved in numerous community committees such as:
Director at Pleasant Manor Retirement Village in Virgil, where he is a member of the building committee tasked to build a new state of the art 128 bed nursing home starting next summer.
Member of Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake Committee of Adjustment
Chair of Agricultural Committee for NOTL
Director on Harmony Residents Group
Member of Community Liaison Advisory Committee to Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority
Dennis is also a member of the Virgil Business Association and the Niagara-on-the-Lake Chamber of Commerce.
There are a number of issues that Dennis will promote at Council, if elected
Fiscal responsibility
Keeping taxes low is a responsibility that Dennis takes seriously. Budgets and reserve funds held by the Town need constant scrutiny to make sure they are being spent wisely. As a successful businessman, Dennis will ensure that your tax money is spent in a cost conscious manner.
Official Plan
Of the many issues that will need to be dealt with by the next Council, the Official Plan will be the most important. This document will drive heritage preservation and development over the next 10 years or more. It will need to be very specific and restrictive so that our established communities are safeguarded from intensification and unwanted infilling. Secondary plans and zoning bylaws will need to be reviewed and tightened so that density, massing, height of buildings and streetscapes are appropriate for our communities. Ideas such as defining “character areas”, for example, Chautauqua or Queen Street across from the golf course, need to be investigated and studied to further safeguard their identities. An “estate bylaw” to save our large estate lots from being severed into small lots needs consideration and debate now that a report has been done.
While our B and B bylaws seem to be working well, the challenges associated with the proliferation of cottage rentals across our Town and student housing in Niagara on the Green are causing concerns for neighbours and will need Council’s attention and a strategic plan adopted.
Active Transportation
NOTL could conceivably become the tourist bicycling capital of Canada. Perhaps, utilizing the ten acres the Town owns at the old NDSS site and installing parking, washrooms and bike rental stalls, people would not have to drive into the Old Town and would be encouraged to bike into Town and visit the wineries from a fairly central location. Issues such as zoning and budgeting would need to be debated and hopefully resolved. The appropriate location of more offroad trails would need to be analyzed and communication with affected landowners undertaken. As rural roads are upgraded, consideration must be given to adding bicycle lanes to ensure rider safety.
The Region of Niagara has to be pressured into
Installing the promised bicycle lanes on Lakeshore Road between Townline Rd and East and West line so that people can bicycle more safely.
Highway 55 in Virgil is a major bottleneck and the Region of Niagara has to put money in a budget to install a third lane so that one has the opportunity to actually turn left when exiting businesses there.
St. Davids needs a traffic light at Four mile Creek and York Road.
The Environment
An exciting development will be the decommissioning of the old Regional Niagara pollution control plant when and if, the new one ever goes online. There is a perfect opportunity to utilize the old sewage ponds and develop them into natural wetlands rather than fill them in. This will provide an area for birds and aquatic animals to thrive close to one of the premier Carolinian forests in Canada. As a director on Harmony Residents Group we are working closely with Parks Canada and the Region of Niagara to achieve this plan.
Phragmites, an invasive reed from Asia, has become a crisis in NOTL. It grows so thickly that it chokes out native species and inhibits wild animal movement. With the help of Niagara College’s GIS mapping program, the areas of infestation will be marked and eradication methods will be tried. Dennis would like to see a committee formed and money earmarked in a Town budget to begin this process which would take a number of years to complete.
Niagara-on-the-Lake Hydro is responsible for our electrical needs and one of their challenges is the need to prune mature trees that interfere with their electrical lines. Often this pruning reduces a beautiful round tree into a V shaped tree. While our Hydro is slowly burying electrical lines in our established communities, Dennis would like to investigate an acceleration of the burial of infrastructure to save our mature trees and maintain our beautiful streetscapes.
The Agricultural Community
In order to produce delicious fruit and world class wines, growers need to be able to drain their land and have the ability to have adequate water for irrigation. Thus, NOTL has a large number of man made drains traversing the rural area. Attention, at the Council table, to drain maintenance (phragmites eradication) and irrigation infrastructure must be addressed. Dennis has the background to make sure agriculture can be discussed rationally and responsibly.
Cannabis production will become intensive as the date for it’s legal use draws nearer. In order to mitigate odour problems from Cannabis growers, the Agricultural Committee would like to recommend large setback requirements to existing neighbours. The existing Council has voted for an interim control bylaw to prohibit the building of new Cannabis greenhouses until a new setback bylaw can be established by the new Council.
Community amenities
The pool in St. Davids needs to be replaced with a new pool. With the building of the Cannery neighbourhood, there are enough children to establish the need for a new outdoor pool. Dennis was instrumental in building the splash pad in Virgil, including raising money from the community.
While there will be many issues that a new Council will need to deal with, these are some of the challenges that Dennis would like to champion if elected but in order to do that he needs your vote. Please support Dennis Dick for Council.
