But bylaw clearly leaves ultimate authority to county councilBy Kate Harries AWARE Simcoe October 28 2011The Midhurst Secondary Plan, which provides for the addition to that community of 11,000 people initially, and 30,000 people in the long-term, in startling contravention of the population projecti...

The Mayor is mistaken -  the Midhurst secondary plan is not a done deal By Bill French October 25 2011On Oct 12, the County of Simcoe approved the greatly flawed secondary plan for Midhurst. The official plan amendment passed through the Council of Springwater on Oct 28, 2008 and has lingered at the ...

By Laurie Watt Barrie Advance Oct 20, 2011 MIDHURST – Simcoe County has done Barrie residents – and future Georgian College and Royal Victoria Hospital employees – an incredible favour, says a Midhurst Landowners Group spokesman. The county has approved the Midhurst Secondary Plan, a move that ...

County, Springwater approve huge development in Midhurst  Barrie Examiner editorial October 19 2011 Why would Simcoe County and Springwater Township councils approve a proposed Midhurst development which runs contrary to provincial planning policy? Read more ...

Snow Valley water issue points to need for tougher standards for developer-built infrastructureLocal Politics – My View – By Bill French June 5 2011I mentioned in a recent article about a suggestion from Springwater Councillor Rick Webster inquiring about possibly rethinking the way we did our snowpl...

By Bill French Springwater News April 28 2011 After over four months in their roles, the Springwater councillors have now been exposed to the numerous training and orientation sessions pertaining to the various activities that they were elected to oversee. Most are doing well and I would say only one...

Seasonal Ontario Food April 19 2011 The 46th annual Elmvale Maple Syrup Festival took place on Saturday, and your intrepid reporters were there. I suspect far fewer than the usual number of people were though, as the weather could only be described as pissing. Well, cold. I guess it could also be des...

AWARE Simcoe April 11 2011  ‘W5’ takes a hard look at the involvement of Ontario’s Special Investigation Unit in the police shooting death of Elmvale’s Doug Minty and poses the question – why has the Ontario Liberal government failed to address long-standing issues regarding h...

Springwater's flat rate policing tax adds to burden of less fortunate Letter to the Springwater News March 31 2011First of all the mayor and councillors did a thorough job of vetting the budget for Springwater and did so in a prudent manner. I have no quarrel with the process or the results for the m...

Good news is the new open session for public to ask questionsLetter from Bill French, Grenfel, Springwater January 27 2011I was pleased that a few more people were out for the January 24th Springwater Council meeting. You can see that the councilors are beginning to build their confidence and taking ...