Innisfil: Dollin takes heat over water

Dollin takes heat over waterRick Vanderlinde Simcoe.com Sep 20, 2010
INNISFIL – Cookstown voters put some heat on Coun. Lynn Dollin during a candidates debate held in the village’s new library last Thursday.
Dollin, who has represented Ward 7 for 16 years, was grilled over the lack of fresh municipal drinking from Lake Simcoe.
Residents questioned why Cookstown still does not have water from Lake Simcoe while the Town of Innisfil has been selling water to Bradford West Gwillimbury.
“I’ve been waiting for 20 years. We are tired and frustrated because our water keeps getting rerouted,” a Cookstown businessman said. “Our water has been hijacked. You kept telling us it is coming.”
Dollin reminded a crowd of about 100 voters that she attempted to have the cost of piping water from Fennel’s Corners to Cookstown included in last year’s budget. However, she was thwarted when the majority of council voted to seek upfront funding from developers first.
Dollin said she has been fighting to make sure exisiting residents waiting for water and sewer capacity receive their fair share when the municipal service arrives.
“The problem is I only have one voice on council for what is now the largest and most populated ward in the town,” she said.
Deputy Mayor Gord Wauchope, who is running for mayor, backed Dollin, saying she fights hard for residents in her ward.
“She works her butt off for her constituents,” he said. “This building (the new library) would not be here if it wasn’t for Lynn Dollin. She certainly fights hard for everyone.”
Dollin’s opponent Rob Nicol, of Gilford, said while he hadn’t fully studied Cookstown’s water issue he wondered whether purchasing water from New Tecumseth may be a better solution.
“If we can sell water to Bradford, why can’t we buy it from New Tech?”
Wauchope said the town needs to look at a master servicing plan for the entire municipality before it can proceed with a Cookstown water plan.
“Water will be coming to Cookstown,” he said. “But first we have to look at strategies of how we can service other parts of Innisfil too.”
Wauchope added the deal to sell water to Bradford has benefited Innisfil and brought the pipe closer to Cookstown.
Mayoral candidate Barb Baguley weighed in on the water issue as well, saying the town should have gone ahead with bringing water to Cookstown.
“I thought we already had the answer for Cookstown,” she said. “I think we should have proceeded with a project where people’s lifes are being affected. In my opinion this should have gone ahead.”
Coun. Dan Davidson, who is running for deputy mayor,” disagreed, saying the master servicing plan could impact how water is brought Cookstown.
Davidson said it could become part of a loop that would include servicing lands south of Churchill the town hopes will one day become a satellite hospital and university campus.